Is the Cabinet Door Firmly Closed on Mira and Marin?

Michel Chebat’s expanded role in Cabinet may send the clearest signal yet about the future of Oscar Mira and Florencio Marin Jr. The two ministers stepped aside amid questions over procurement and payment practices at the Ministry of National Defense, leaving Prime Minister John Briceño and Julius Espat to share their responsibilities. Government described the move as temporary while an audit was carried out. But with Chebat now permanently installed as Minister of National Security, we asked Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie whether any path remains for Mira and Marin to return.

 

 Shane Williams

“Was there any consideration for Mr. Mira and Mr. Marin? They have been over three months outside.”

 

Stuart Leslie, Cabinet Secretary

“Well, I cannot get inside of the Prime Minister’s head. I carry, carry out his instructions. Um, and these are people who the Prime Minister, all of his twenty-six representatives he value very, very much. And he would have, if not yet, he would have taken the opportunity to speak to them. I am not privy to the private conversations that the Prime Minister might have had with those, those two representatives, but I am sure that at some point the Prime Minister will speak to them. The next step for me in my responsibility now is to make the arrangements for all the necessary paperwork, a lot of moving parts with the Office of the Governor General.  So we have to get in touch with Her Excellency as soon as possible to make arrangements for new ministers to present, um, to go to present themselves to Her Excellency for her to swear them in. And the Prime Minister’s timeline is that he’s hoping that I will have all that stuff figured out by midday tomorrow, which would be midday tomorrow, Wednesday, so that those ministers can go in and begin to work immediately.”

 

While questions remain about the futures of Oscar Mira and Florencio Marin Jr., Jose Abelardo Mai has been out of Cabinet much longer. He stepped away in November last year, and after being left out of the latest reshuffle, many are now wondering whether his Cabinet career is also over.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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