Member of Parliament George Pantophlet says that he had to respond to some of the remarks by the United People’s party board (UP) in their article of Wednesday last. Facts are that people are being removed from the civil registrar, facts are that he did receive calls from persons in the US that they were being removed from the civil registrar, facts are that naturalized persons with the Dutch passport who have been residing on St. Maarten for 10, 15, 20 years or more are being told that they have to get an authenticated birth certificate before renewing their passport.
The hysteria created by the UP backed government is not informing the citizens of this country as to the rules and regulations relating to the renewal of their passports, identity cards and driver’s license prior to this procedure taking effect. Unless the procedures have been changed the birth certificate (Original) of these persons are kept by the civil registrar’s office when they apply for their passports. So another question he has for government is what did the census office do with these birth certificates? As recent as yesterday the Member of Parliament was informed that someone born on Aruba went to renew their passport was told that they have to get their birth certificate first before their passport can be renewed. This is a fact. What this government is doing is causing these persons a lot of stress and unnecessary financial costs. These persons have to spend money to get their new birth certificate. They will have to pay someone who lives in their country of origin to do the process. They have to pay for the birth certificate itself which can run into hundreds of dollars. In some cases where it is required by some countries they must appear in person. Again the Member of Parliament wants to know what happened to these persons birth certificate that was submitted when they were receiving their passport. The Member of Parliament does agree with the UP Board final statements when they stated and he quotes;" there are laws in place and procedures need to be followed" end of quote. So exactly what are those laws and procedures? What government should do is make the information known first before creating the present hysteria that the UP Board mentioned. Inform the public. The Member of Parliament says that he is certain that his questions to the Minister of General Affairs will be answered although he is still waiting on the answers on questions he posed to VROMI Minister Maurice Lake during the discussion on the Emilio Wilson Estate. In conclusion the UP board said the Member of Parliament should come with solutions for the island’s issues. The Member of Parliament has some advice for the UP Board. Find out from the Minister of Finance how things are progressing with the 100 million guilders AUC deal whether the court case has started or not. The COLA would have been paid easily from this and the Budgets of the next 3 years balanced. Find out from the Minister of Finance if government has paid the 2.6 million guilders owed to the SMMC and the millions still owed to the Pharmacies and other health care providers. Find out from the Minister of Economic Affairs how things are progressing with the legislation on the casino fees, the casino gaming board, the consumer protection agency, the additional products to the basket of basic necessities. These are just a few there is much more but this article is becoming to lengthy. The Member’s advice to government is, please Inform the people first don’t work backwards.