Merx questions role of Richard Gibson Jr.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Silvio Matser made a public appeal to the Holding and Supervisory Board of Princess Juliana International Airport to tender their resignations immediately since they chose to suspend the Managing Director of PJIAE Regina Labega on St. Maarten’s day. The suspension came one day after Labega lost the injunction she filed against the Prime Minister.
SMN News contacted Attorney at Law Cor Merx several times on Tuesday after the court’s decision especially after reading the decision given by the court but Merx responded only Thursday and stated that he wants to know how the verdict of closed door session was made public and by whom? Merx said there were only five people involved in the case, he said Attorney at Law Richard Gibson Jr. requested a closed door session and he agreed since he did not want to put his client through anymore humiliation. Merx said at one point Gibson Jr. presented himself as the lawyer representing government and during the trial he switched places, by placing one of his colleague Attorney at Law KRRAAIJEVELD as the representative of government while Gibson Jr. represented the Supervisory Board of PJIAE.
Merx further explained that on Wednesday “St. Maarten’s Day” Richard Gibson Jr. called Labega on a private number and identified himself and also told her that he is the chairman of the supervisory board of PJIAE and he Gibson immediately started to interrogate Labega.
Merx further stated that Gibson Jr. told Labega that the Supervisory Board was in a meeting and they wanted to either fire her or suspend her and they wanted to get her opinion on the decision the supervisory board was about to take. He said sometime during the day, Labega was informed by email that she was suspended but he who is the lawyer representing Labega was not informed of the meeting and the decision taken by the Supervisory Board. Merx said that the supervisory board suspended Labega for her behavior and her integrity and not the case of 2009 that is being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office. “First I need to know what role is Richard Gibson Jr have, is the lawyer for government, or is the lawyer for the supervisory board and also the chairman of the supervisory board of PJIAE? In court he first stated he was the attorney for government then that changed, he became the attorney for the supervisory board and suddenly he called Labega as the chairman of the Supervisory Board of PJIAE. This has me and my client confused because clearly one person has been wearing several caps in this case. I also need to know what is wrong with Labega’s behavior, did she not dance the way the Prime Minister and Supervisory Board wants? The day before the court rendered its decision Labega was praised for her work by almost all members of Parliament so I need to know what is wrong with her behavior?” Asked if he will be contesting the decision of the court Merx said he agrees with the court and his client will respect the court’s decision.
One of the remarks the judge made was even if she granted Labega her wishes she “Labega” still does not have a certificate of good conduct and the law clearly states that persons that are holding such positions on government owned companies must have a certificate of good conduct.
Labega lost her court case on Tuesday afternoon where she took the Prime Minister to court asking that the court stop him from taking any actions against her until she is given the chance to appeal the screening process done by VDSM. Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs sent a letter to Labega some eight weeks ago informing her that she failed the screening and that the boards of PJIAE will have to suspend her pending her appeal. The suspension was supposed to go into effect on November 13th 2015 but the Holding Board of PJIAE chose to suspend Labega two days before.
While Labega might be a victim of the system and the Landsreacherche who advised the Prime Minister not to issue a certificate of good conduct to Labega, the Prime Minister cannot grant anyone, a certificate of good conduct if agencies such as the Landsreacherche advised against it. However, it is indeed questionable how long persons in the community has to wait in order for them to get justice, the case against Labega started since 2009 when the former head of finance sent packages of government documents to former Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos. While the Prosecution claims to have tons of information against Labega on the operations of the Tourist Office, only some weeks ago the Prosecution chose to conduct house searches at the owners of the company DMC, which are Regina Labega. Erica Fortuno and Fabian Badejoe.
