Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der has fired back at Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les’ call for the dis­missal of the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) board and all three hous­ing min­is­ters, fol­low­ing the can­cel­la­tion of the con­tro­ver­sial $3.4 bil­lion hous­ing pro­cure­ment process.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) pres­i­dent, ASP Ish­mael Pitt, has raised con­cern over the well-be­ing of po­lice of­fi­cers, warn­ing that the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE) and sus­tained high op­er­a­tional de­mands are plac­ing in­creas­ing strain on per­son­nel.

A bright Fri­day in Fyz­abad laid bare deep di­vi­sions with­in the labour move­ment as thou­sands of work­ers marched from Av­o­cat Junc­tion to Char­lie King Junc­tion, with mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) boo­ing one union leader while oth­ers ap­plaud­ed, amid mount­ing frus­tra­tion over de­layed wage pay­ments and dif­fer­ing ap­proach­es to Gov­ern­ment en­gage­ment.

Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions in Fyz­abad were over­shad­owed yes­ter­day by the ar­rest of so­cial ac­tivist Alyssa Phillip af­ter po­lice stopped her and mem­bers of the 19 Bul­lets, 19 Protests move­ment from join­ing the an­nu­al march, prompt­ing crit­i­cism from trade union lead­ers and politi­cians.

Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing a dou­ble homi­cide af­ter two men were found shot dead along Tay­lor Av­enue, Quinam Road, Siparia, ear­ly this morn­ing.

Ac­tivists be­hind the 19 Protests move­ment brought their cam­paign to Fyz­abad on Labour Day, us­ing the his­toric ob­ser­vance to re­new calls for trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty in the wake of the fa­tal po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing of Joshua Sama­roo and the crit­i­cal in­juries suf­fered by his girl­friend, Ka­ia Sealey.

The Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) has of­fi­cial­ly can­celled its con­tro­ver­sial $3.4 bil­lion De­sign-Build-Fi­nance (DBF) hous­ing pro­cure­ment pro­gramme. Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der con­firmed this yes­ter­day, say­ing the Gov­ern­ment took the de­ci­sion to pull the process en­tire­ly rather than al­low it to be­come mired in pro­longed dis­putes and de­lays that could fur­ther post­pone the de­liv­ery of thou­sands of homes.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says de­spite the achieve­ments and chal­lenges of the past year, he is not daunt­ed by what lies ahead and re­mains firm­ly fo­cused on build­ing a bet­ter T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

One year in­to his tenure as head of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has earned high praise from Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der.

Se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts say suc­ces­sive states of emer­gency have de­fined Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro’s first year in of­fice, re­shap­ing how the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) de­ploys re­sources and fu­elling de­bate over whether the or­gan­i­sa­tion is op­er­at­ing with­in cri­sis con­di­tions or a long-term polic­ing mod­el.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has paid trib­ute to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s work­ers while reaf­firm­ing her Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing labour rights and ex­pand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for work­ing peo­ple.

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo has un­der­scored both grat­i­tude and vig­i­lance in ho­n­our­ing the na­tion’s work­ers.