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Friday, March 21, 2025

UNC leader bats for former commissioners Philbert, Williams

'Both deserving of awards'

by

Akash Samaroo
176 days ago
20240926
Former acting police commissioners Stephen Williams, left, and James Philbert, who received the Chaconia Medal Silver at the National Awards Ceremony on Republic Day.

Former acting police commissioners Stephen Williams, left, and James Philbert, who received the Chaconia Medal Silver at the National Awards Ceremony on Republic Day.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­lieves the na­tion­al awards be­stowed on for­mer act­ing com­mis­sion­ers of po­lice Stephen Williams and James Philbert were well de­served. 

This is in stark con­trast to what for­mer com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith said on Tues­day when he ar­gued that the Cha­co­nia Medal Siv­er award­ed to both men in the sphere of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was un­de­serv­ing and could be a re­sult of po­lit­i­cal favouritism. 

How­ev­er, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) has a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive. 

Speak­ing yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was full of praise for the two for­mer heads of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS). 

“I do think that both of them are de­serv­ing of the awards. They gave many decades of their lives to pub­lic ser­vice through the TTPS. Mr Stephen Williams was al­ways a de­cent and very pro­fes­sion­al man who was a pro­duc­tive com­mis­sion­er of po­lice un­der my gov­ern­ment. Mr Philbert was al­so com­mit­ted to the coun­try. I wish them well,” she said via What­sApp mes­sage. 

Con­cern­ing the re­cip­i­ents of the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT). The UNC leader said while she may have, in the past, been crit­i­cal of Mark Lo­quan in a pro­fes­sion­al ca­pac­i­ty as the head of the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC), now all she wants is the best for him. 

“My views on Mark Lo­quan’s per­for­mance in a pro­fes­sion­al ca­pac­i­ty at NGC are well known. How­ev­er, Mr Lo­quan is now re­tired, he is now a pri­vate cit­i­zen and sim­ply a hu­man be­ing who’s fight­ing a hard bat­tle with a ter­ri­ble ill­ness. I wish him the best and hope he makes a full re­cov­ery. May God grant him and his fam­i­ly strength courage and com­fort as he fights to over­come his ill­ness,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. 

How­ev­er, with re­spect to an­oth­er ORTT awardee, Se­nior Coun­sel Rus­sell Mar­tineau, the UNC leader was less gra­cious. 

She curt­ly mes­saged, “My views on Mar­tineau have not changed.” 

Those views are less than com­pli­men­ta­ry as in 2022, Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed that Mar­tineau and oth­er at­tor­neys with the dis­tinc­tion of Se­nior Coun­sel sang for their sup­per from the PNM Gov­ern­ment. 

That po­si­tion pro­voked the ire of the head of the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion, Is­rael Ra­jah-Khan who in 2022 called for her to apol­o­gise and again dou­bled down on that call Tues­day af­ter it was an­nounced that Mar­tineau would re­ceive the ORTT. 

De­spite his calls, Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not is­sue any apol­o­gy. 


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