TRINIDAD-PNM chairman burns court-ordered unexplained wealth order.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Chairman of the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), Marvin Gonzales, has burnt a copy of the High Court-ordered unexplained wealth order granted to the Trinidad and Tobago Police last week, saying it “was born in sin and it was shaped in political iniquity”.

The High Court order compels the political party to provide financial and other records to explain the funding for the reconstruction of the PNM’s “Baliser” headquarters. It was officially reopened on January 27, 2024, coinciding with the party’s 68th anniversary.

Earlier this month, High Court Judge Margaret Mohammed granted an order to the police to compel the PNM to explain its funding for the multimillion-dollar headquarters. Watch video

On July 10, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro, who appointed acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Ramdath Phillip to lead the investigation, authorized him to make an application in the High Court for a Preliminary Unexplained Wealth Order, in accordance with Section 58(1) of the Civil Asset Recovery and Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Act, 2019.

The application names the trustees of the PNM as the first respondent; and the PNM, represented by its general secretary, as the second respondent.

In his affidavit, ASP Phillip stated that investigators have identified property during the course of an investigation into what is described only as a “specified offense”.

The application alleges there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the total wealth of the respondents exceeds the value of their lawfully obtained wealth; the total wealth of the respondents exceeds $500,000; the respondents own the property in question or it is under their effective control; and the property was obtained through the commission of a specified offense.

But as he addressed a public meeting dubbed “In Defense of Our Democracy and Freedom,” Gonzales said that the legal move is political prosecution, telling supporters, “Enough is enough. The time has come for us to act in this country.”

He said that the country should not be afraid of the ruling United National Congress (UNC) or the “despicable” Homeland Security Minister, Roger Alexander.

“Let us not be afraid of any of them because Trinidad and Tobago belong to all of us. If they want, they can threaten us… but our voices will always be heard in the communities, in the streets, in the highways and the byways because as long as we have the People’s National Movement, our voices will not be buried.

“Therefore, this order was served on the People’s National Movement to ask what we are doing and how we came about with funds to construct our Baliser House. We will not be afraid of this order because the PNM, ladies and gentlemen, is not only in brick and concrete and mortar.”

Gonzales said that the PNM lives in the heart and the dreams of every single citizen of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

“You can burn it down. You can rip it apart. The PNM lives in the hearts of every single citizen, and this order will not cover us because this order, we will confine it to where it’s supposed to be because, as the Psalmist says, just like the UNC and John Jeremy, it was conceived in political sin….

“It was born in sin, and it was shaped in political iniquity, just like John Jeremy and Kamala Prasad-Bissessar, and therefore tonight we will burn this court order. We will burn this court order because it will not desecrate the grounds upon which the People’s National Movement was built, and we will send them to the political ashes in the political cemetery of the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Gonzales told supporters.

Speakers at the public meeting maintained that the party will legally defend itself and challenge the High Court order requiring the party to disclose the financing sources used to construct the headquarters, maintaining that the funds were acquired legally.

“I want to give every member of this movement the firm assurance that the People’s National Movement is standing strong. Its officers are at their posts. Its affairs are being managed. Its attorneys are ready,” said the party’s general secretary Foster Cummings.

“Nobody inside Balisier House is packing up any bag, searching for no backdoor, or negotiating any surrender of the People’s National Movement. We are ready and determined to defend our people, our party, and to defend our party headquarters.”

Download video – Marvin Gonzales, PNM Chariman