RELATIVES of kidnapped Venezuelan businessman Jose Jesus Bomparte Cipriani have paid $300,000 for his safe return, but up to late evening the whereabouts of the 60-year-old man were unknown, Sunday Newsday learned. Sources at the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) confirmed yesterday that the money has been paid and that the kidnappers who have snatched and held Cipriani are demanding more cash for his safe release. Police said the $300,000 ransom demand was paid on Thursday night and was dropped off in the Malick, Barataria area. Police, however, did not want to disclose how the negotiations were done for payment. However, AKS sources said, the $300,000 was paid unknown to them, and police said they are working along certain lines as the investigations continue.

Cipriani was snatched by three armed men on the night of June 12 from a house at Darcy Road, Bossierre No 2, Maraval.  The house is owned by Trinidadian Martin Schneider. At the time of the kidnapping, Cipriani was sitting in the living room of the downstairs portion of the large two-storey house in company with American national Jerry Johnson, his South African wife, Marion, Venezuelan Caroline Heyen and Scottish-born David McDowell. Jerry Johnson was robbed of $1,500 cash, Heyen was relieved of her handbag containing personal documents including a return plane ticket to her homeland, while Schneider’s cellphone was stolen. The three armed men gained entry to the house by jumping the front wall as well as a black iron gate to the downstairs portion of the house. No arrests had been made up to late evening and the AKS, whose head is Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes, along with Cpl Peter Dennis of the St Clair CID are continuing investigations.

AN ARIMA businessman and a patron were both shot in separate incidents within 45 minutes of each other in Arima Friday night and lawmen are working on the theory that the same people are responsible for the shootings.

In the first instance, police said around 9pm Roger Hernandez, 40, of Arima, was at the Major League Sports Cafe, Olton Road, Arima. Police said two armed men then entered and held up Hernandez, who was relieved of $700.  As the bandits were making their exit, police said one of them fired a shot, striking Hernandez in his lower back. He was first rushed to the Arima Health Facility then transferred to Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he is reported to be in stable condition.

In the other shooting, police said around 9.45pm Foster Duncan, 44, proprietor of Columbus Bar, was at his businessplace at Subero Street, Malabar. Police said two armed men approached and held Foster up, stealing $1,000 from the businessman.  They then shot Foster on his left thigh and made good their escape on foot. Foster, too,  was initially rushed to the Arima Health Facility then taken to Port-of-Spain General Hospital.  He is also said to be stable. No arrests had been made in either of the shootings and PCs Groome and Lakhai of Arima Criminal Investigations Department (CID) are continuing investigations.

School Supervisors in Trinidad and Tobago are being “cheated” of their rightful earnings and the TT Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) intends to correct this anomaly at all costs. So said Trevor Oliver, president of the national teachers’ body, in Tobago last week. Oliver lamented that school supervisors were taking home less money on retirement than their juniors.  He said educators were therefore shying away from assuming this position, and described the situation as “grave.”

Oliver raised the issue when he addressed the annual Tobago Teachers’ Get Together at the Tobago Hilton. He cited an example: “A Principal 11, which is a secondary school principal, recently retired as a Supervisor 11; he got a gratuity of $175,000. Had he remained as a Principal 11 or secondary principal he would have gotten $340,000, “Oliver argued. “As a matter of fact he gets less than what a secondary vice-principal would get on retiring. 

A Principal 1 gets an average of $275,000 on retirement, and the average teacher, once you complete the 33 1/3 years, somewhere like $185,000”, he ex-plained. “The situation for supervisors, that’s a grave one; because we are not getting people going into the supervisory service, and it is clearly unfair to them!” Oliver declared. He urged that this situation must be seriously addressed by the relevant authorities. “School supervisors are being cheated and we will do everything to ensure that they get their just due,” the TTUTA president assured his Tobago audience.

UNC supporters yesterday expressed their disgust over the selection of Shaffimoon Thaj as the person to contest the Forres Park/Balmain/Esperanza electoral district with a protest outside the Rienzi Complex, Couva.

Thaj is to contest the seat in the July 14 Local Government Elections.
The residents with banners and placards booed and heckled Thaj shortly after she was confirmed as the candidate for the seat by UNC officials. Previously she held the Freeport/Edinburg seat for two terms in the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation. The district which she will contest was previously held by Ramchand Rajbal, who defected to Team Unity. The UNC will today formally announce its slate of candidates for the elections at the Gulf City complex.

“Before we could display the Harry Potter book V in the window showcase people were asking for the book. We had to give them from the box,” said a store clerk of a local book store.

The fifth edition of the Harry Potter series — “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by UK author JK Rowling was released worldwide, yesterday  and despite reports of the long lines of eager customers outside book stores in the US and UK, local book stores are expecting a total sell-out of stock in the first day of sales. Up to 1 pm, Eventures book store, St James branch had realised 120 sales, a total sell-out, in the first two hours of the store’s opening at 9 am. Store owner, Richard Aming said that he brought in a total of 150 copies for both his branches in St James and St Augustine. “The first two customers bought five copies each. They said they were buying to give out to friends,” said Aming. The 766-page edition of Harry Potter V costs $155.

Aming said that the books had an embargo date of June 21 and local retailers were not allowed to ship in the books more than a day before its release. “I came in 8 o’clock  last night with the books to put them out for this morning. I wanted to bring 300 books but the books are heavy. Each weighs three pounds,” he said. Aming has put in an order for another 150 copies for Friday. Next to JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series, Aming said that Harry Potter books has been his second best seller. Stefan Mitchell, 12, of Petit Valley had just purchased his copy of the fifth edition. He told Sunday Newsday: “I wanted to be one of the first to read it… I like the writing style and story line of the Harry Potter series. On a scale of one to ten I’d give the series a 9 1/2.” While Stefan is eager to read his copy his father reminded “not until test is over, he can read it. He doesn’t have a choice,” said Mr Mitchell. Stefan read all of the previous editions.

“My daughter had me calling relatives in the US up to this morning for them to secure a copy for her and when we heard that local book stores had it we came right down,” said Karien Sargeant of Belmont. Her daughter, Kalisha Toussaint, 15, described it as a “must-have.” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is over a third longer than the previous edition “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” — 255,000 words more than book IV’s 191,000 words. Book IV recorded the fastest selling book in history on the first weekend of its publication. The book is published in a standard children’s hardback edition and in an adult hardback edition, with same text but with a different jacket. Books imported from the US carry a blue jacket while those from the UK have a yellow jacket.

A 14-year-old Morvant teen-ager was shot once in the stomach by two gunmen who stormed into his Plover Gardens, Morvant home on Wednesday night.

Checks with the Port-of-Spain General Hospital revealed that the teenager was in serious condition. According to reports, around 7.30 pm  Sheldon David was at his home when two masked men armed with guns entered and shot him in the stomach. He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was treated and warded. Police investigators claimed that the shooting is linked to the recent murder of known gang member Nigel “Naye” King.

King, 36, was shot several times while sitting on a wall at the home of his friend Vodrick Lee Kim, at Mon Repos, Morvant. The killer reportedly walked up to the two and shot King in the shoulder and chest before fleeing the scene. King was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital and warded at the Intensive Care Unit. He died around midday on Saturday. Investigators said that they are yet to secure a statement from the injured teenager. Officers of the Morvant CID are investigating.

ARANGUEZ taxi driver Harrinarine Ragoonag was shot on Friday afternoon by one of four male passengers he picked up, police sources said.

According to police, around 3pm, Ragoonag, of Ramlochan Street, was plying his taxi for hire. On reaching Second Avenue and Tenth Street, Barataria, police said two of the male passengers alighted leaving two more in the back seat. Police sources said on reaching the corner of Tenth Street and Second Avenue, one of the two passengers, wearing a white vest, pointed a gun at the back of Ragoonag, saying: “Pass the money.  Pass the change.” Ragoonag is reported to have brought his vehicle to a halt and was shot from behind on his left upper shoulder. Police said Ragoonag was then dragged from his vehicle, in which the assailant and the other passenger drove off.  The car had not been located up to late evening. Police said Ragoonag ran to a nearby house and collapsed, bleeding profusely. He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he is reported to be warded in stable condition.

A report was made and a party of officers headed by Insps Dave Hillaire and Coa, along with Cpls McMillan and Jacobs visited the scene and conducted interviews. A statement was also taken from the victim. No arrests had been made up to late evening and Cpl McMillan is continuing investigations.  In another issue, two Diego Martin men are due to appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate Monday to answer gun and ammunition charges. The two men were held around 4 am Friday by officers of the West End Police Station, under Cpl Francis Rivas and including PCs Wheeler, Fournillier, Brisbane and Samuel. Police said the officers executed a search warrant at a River Estate house and found a .38 revolver and four rounds of .38 ammunition. The two men are also wanted in connection with a series of shootings in the River Estate, area, senior police said.

A KIDNAP businessman, who managed to escape his abductors several hours after they snatched and held him, was shot twice while fleeing, police said.

Philmore John, 41, of Trincity, is now warded at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, in stable condition.  He has been shot on the left side of his back and right arm, police told Sunday Newsday. John is the proprietor of First Step Shoe Store, Trincity Mall.  According to police reports, John was driving his green B14 Nissan Sentra vehicle along Beaulieu Avenue, Trincity around 2 pm on Friday. Northern Division police said a white B14 Nissan Sentra, in which there were three occupants, pulled in front of John’s vehicle, thereby causing the businessman to stop his car. Lawmen said the men abducted John, who was then bound and gagged and placed into the trunk of his vehicle.  He was transported to Maraval.

Police said John was left at Maraval in company with two men.  The Trincity businessman managed to free himself just after 6 pm on Friday, but as he was fleeing the Maraval house, he was shot on the left side of his back and on his right arm. Bleeding, police said John then made his way to the Maraval Police Station where he made a report.  Police there took him to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Maraval police confirmed that John made a report at 11.56 pm on Friday and said the report from Northern Division police was consistent with what they were told. Police said they later found John’s vehicle partially burnt on Nelson Street, Port-of-Spain.  It is now lodged at the Besson Street Police Station. No arrests had been made up to late evening.  PC Hernandez of Arouca Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is continuing investigations.

It is billed as a Battle Royale between former employees of TEXTEL and TSTT. The fight is over the surplus in the TEXTEL pension plan which ceased when the employees of TEXTEL joined the TSTT pension plan.

After all these years, no one has been able to access any funds from the TEXTEL plan; it was remained with the trustee RBTT, and it has grown considerably, which, according to retired TEXTEL Personnel Manager Eugene Lopez, must be in the vicinity of $200 million. The former employees tested the matter in the TT courts and lost. Now, they are heading to the Privy Council which they hope will resolve the matter. TEXTEL was formed in 1970 following a joint venture between the TT Government and Cable and Wireless. But TEXTEL ceased to exist on December 31, 1990 when the new entity became TSTT. But the TEXTEL pension plan continued under TSTT, until the new company established its own in 1994 when it invited members of the TEXTEL plan to join theirs.

Effective January 1, 1995, all former TEXTEL employees joined the TSTT plan, which according to Lopez, had enhanced benefits over the previous plan. As of December 31, 1993, there was $62.9 million which represented the surplus in the TEXTEL plan. The former employees were ready to share the spoils. That is when the problems started. Lopez said TSTT wanted 56 percent of the surplus. “We said no. We sought a meeting with TSTT and this negotiation went on from 1996 to 1998. I got my attorney to write to TSTT in 1998. I did get a reply from the company which amounted in reality that the matter could not be resolved and there was nothing more to discuss.” TSTT sought to transfer the surplus to its own plan on the advice of its actuaries Bacon, Woodrow and De Souza. Lopez objected to the proposal to transfer the surplus in the TEXTEL plan to the TSTT plan.

Lopez said that in 1999, a decision was taken that the matter should be resolved in the High Court. He asked the court to declare that the move was unlawful and impermissible. Justice Ivor Archie, presiding in the Port-of-Spain High Court, ruled against the former TEXTEL employees, in a judgment dated September 27, 2000. But it was also a loss for TSTT as the judge ruled that the company was barred from having access to the surplus from the TEXTEL pension plan. Justice Archie ruled that the conduct of TSTT in seeking to implement the proposal to transfer the surplus from the TEXTEL plan was improper and lacking in good faith. He also found that TSTT was attempting to capitalise the new TSTT plan and use the surplus in the TEXTEL plan to benefit current employees who had never been members of the TEXTEL plan. So the surplus in the TEXTEL plan could not be touched either by those who contributed to the plan, nor TSTT. The money remained in the hands of the trustee, RBTT. Following the judgement, TSTT requested on October 9, 2000 to seek an audience with the former TEXTEL employees in an effort to reach a settlement. “But what was to come was sheer madness. The company wanted to settle, but on what condition?” Lopez asked.

Lopez told Sunday Newsday that TSTT wanted the 56 percent share of the surplus which was their original offer. Plus, another two-thirds of the remaining 44 percent. “Sheer madness! We totally disagreed with that and so, we decided to appeal the ruling of the High Court.” But the Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Sat Sharma, Justice Margot Warner, and Justice Rolston Nelson, upheld the judgment of the High Court in a judgment dated December 12, 2002, and so the former TEXTEL employees lost again. TSTT was also left in the quandary as the company still could not touch the money. Lopez said an actual evaluation of the surplus in the TEXTEL plan dated March 31, 2000, put the figure at $179 million. He believes the figure has gone past the $200 million mark, although as he put it, “no one knows for sure what the actual figure is.” But Lopez is not alone in this struggle. Lawrence Brown, a former President of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), who sat opposite to Lopez during previous struggles, is now on his side as they seek the get the surplus from the TEXTEL plan.

“The union is now fully part of this struggle,” Brown told Sunday Newsday. “It is no longer Lopez versus TSTT/RBTT. This is now a people’s matter and the union is part of the whole thing. This is a wake up call to all the unions throughout the country on the issue of pensions. A lot of people are very much in the dark about pension plans. This is not just a matter involving former TEXTEL employees. This is about challenging the status quo and to see how society is run.” Brown added. What about the 500 TEXTEL employees who were part of the plan. According to Lopez, “some have died, some have retired and there could be just about 100 employees still employed at TSTT. This is a sad story,” he added. What’s next? Lopez said a committee has been formed to take the matter further. One of the plans, according to the retired Personnel Manager, is to take the matter to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. How long that will take and what is the likelihood of success is anybody’s guess. But Lopez is hopeful that the Law Lords will resolve this matter and no one can touch the money which continues to grow while beneficiaries of the plan continue to die.

When the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) of the Ministry of Legal Affairs launches the Free Birth Certificate Programme in the next week it will be a culmination of almost ten years of work, which began since July 1994.

This programme, which is part of an automated Civil Registry in the establishment of this country’s Population Registration System (PRS), will be implemented on a phased basis with the issuing of free computer-generated birth certificates to children born from 1984 to present (2003), in the first instance. In this group of children 18 years and under, special consideration will be given to Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) students scheduled to write the examination in 2004. The RGD will work with principals, SEA teachers, and parents over the next three months to have these certificates available by mid September 2003. Children of the employees of the Ministry of Legal Affairs born after 1984, however, will be the first to receive their computerised certificates on Wednesday June 25 in a function at the Ministry, while the programme launch will take place on Wednesday July 2, 2003. The promise of free birth certificates was made during the budget debate of 2002/2003 and forms part of Government’s Social and Economic Policy Framework in its effort to improve service delivery to the population.

The proposal is for the first copy of these computer-generated birth certificates to be issued free to citizens as a social relief measure, and as an incentive to parents in order to lessen the incidence of non-registration of births. Until the launch of the second phase in January 2004, which entails the issuing of free computer-generated certificates to those people born before 1984, persons requesting their hand-written certificates will be required to pay the $25 fee for the service under the existing system. It was in July, 1994 Cabinet authorised the Registrar General’s Department to develop a PRS, which will serve as a means of uniquely identifying each member of the population of Trinidad and Tobago using a personal identification number (PIN). This project entails the establishment of an electronic register of the entire population. The PRS is critical to the progress of reforms in the Health Sector, since an essential prerequisite for the National Health Insurance System (NHIS) is the capability to uniquely identify each citizen. Other agencies that will benefit from the PRS are Central Statistical Office, Elections and Boundaries Commission, Board of Inland Revenue, National Insurance Board and Social Welfare Division, and the Transport Division of the Ministry of Works.

The main advantage of the PRS is, therefore, the fact that it can serve as the authorised civil government database providing all agencies and the public at large with basic information, eliminating data redundancy, duplication of efforts and unofficial sources of information. Other advantages include the fact that the PRS, if properly maintained, can generate up-to-date valid listings of the population, thereby reducing the need for island-wide censuses and produce precise population statistics on completely up-to-date information without significant expenditure. The establishment of the PRS required the procurement, installation and testing of suitable hardware, software and related equipment as well as the training of the staff to operate these systems.

In 1997, Cabinet agreed to the awarding of a contract to NIPDEC to facilitate automation of the Civil Registry and the development of a Population Registration System. This aspect led to two contracts being awarded to Fujitsu-ICL (Fujitsu) — one to supply hardware, operating software and customised application software, and the other to convert the records of the Civil Registry into an electronic environment to be integrated with the application software as customised. In April 2002, NIPDEC handed over the application software, installed hardware and software to the Minister of Legal Affairs, Camille Robinson-Regis. The Civil Registry comprises all records of births, adoptions, marriages, divorces and adoption. The new system can link a person’s birth, adopting, marriage, divorce, and death and is expected to provide information through quick searches in a more secured manner. During the development stages Civil Registry data was entered for 65 years of birth, 30 years of deaths, Muslim and Hindu Marriages, Muslim divorces and 65 years of civil marriages. At present, the database comprises about three million records of births, deaths, marriages, Muslim divorces and adoptions.