00:00In response to a question from TV6 News about the new state of emergency that took effect on Tuesday,
00:06Prime Minister Kamala Pesad-Besessa said, quote,
00:08no curfew or any limitations on public gatherings, much the same as during the previous SOE, end quote.
00:17A reference to the state of emergency that ended on January 31st.
00:21But will the new SOE in Trinidad and Tobago cause the Prime Minister to change her plan to travel to
00:26the U.S.
00:27for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump?
00:29Prime Minister Pesad-Besessa said that she plans to travel to the U.S. for the meeting as announced before.
00:36On his way to the Senate, Opposition Senator Foster Cummings spoke about the new SOE
00:41while he fielded a question from the media about whether he was aware of new terminations at CPEP.
00:46It's unfortunate that the government has taken this position on the most vulnerable in society, CPEP workers,
00:55but I don't have any additional information on that.
00:57And it's equally disturbing that we are back in a state of emergency.
01:00Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, David Naked,
01:04told the government line as he responded to a question from TV6 News about the absence of the media
01:09when the Attorney General delivered a televised statement about the new SOE.
01:14When we have people being gunned down, when young boys were playing football in a park
01:21and a mother was killed in front of a child, in a shot in her face, and somebody else was
01:28killed previously,
01:30I think the constitutional rights that we are talking about, we have to be very careful.
01:35We have to be concerned with the security and safety of our citizens.
01:40First and foremost, that is our mandate as Prime Minister.
01:43It was just over a month ago the government failed to get the required support
01:48from among the nine independent senators for the bill for zones of special operations.
01:53Independent Senator Michael Simon-Victor de Labesteed spoke with the media on Tuesday.
01:58I think the main reason why he decided that the SOE bill didn't pass was because the government
02:05weren't prepared to make certain amendments which he suggested, which they stated, admitted, had merit.
02:13And I think the main, from my point of view, the main amendment was the sunset clause,
02:19that I would have been prepared to support the bill if there was a cut-off period after which the
02:26bill would expire.
02:26Independent Senator Antony Vieira also spoke with the media on his way to the Senate.
02:31I really am not persuaded that there is a need for an SOE.
02:34I thought that there had been a decrease in crime, and I thought on the last occasion,
02:39the Prime Minister, when she was in opposition, had decried having SOEs in place of a proper crime plan.
02:47So that's number one.
02:48The second point I will make is that, having said that, I prefer the SOE than having had the ZOZO
02:56bill as it had been presented.
02:58I think we are probably better off with the SOE.
03:01In response to a question from TV6 News about Senator Vieira's comment, Prime Minister Pasalba Sessa said,
03:06quote, the SOE gives the government much more powers than the ZOZO's, end quote.
03:11And in a second public statement posted on the social media pages on Tuesday,
03:16the Prime Minister said that she is not afraid to take tough decisions in defense of law-abiding citizens of
03:22Trinidad and Tobago,
03:23as she responded to critics, including the opposition.
03:27Prime Minister Pasalba Sessa said they opposed the U.S. radar system,
03:31which has strengthened the nation's border security.
03:34The Prime Minister further said they opposed the ZOZO legislation,
03:39which would have empowered law enforcement to root out criminality in identified hotspots,
03:46many of which are constituencies represented by the PNM,
03:49while rebuilding the social infrastructure of those communities.
03:54Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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