Right for Busuttil but wrong for Grech

Having no valid argument to object to the nomination of Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Azzopardi as commissioner for standards in public life, the Nationalist opposition is simply concentrating on the fact that the law states that the appointment has to be backed by at least two-thirds majority of the members of parliament.

I heard opposition members repeating the argument that they did not want to say anything about the nomination.

Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Azzopardi

They just wanted to concentrate on the fact that the present law states that the appointment has to obtain a two-thirds majority. If the unblocking mechanism is not introduced, the PN opposition will have the power to veto any person nominated by the prime minister until a person is nominated who, I am morally convinced, the PN considers “friendly” instead of impartial.

I heard the concluding speech by Bernard Grech. He never denied that he had finally agreed with the prime minister on the nomination of Azzopardi as commissioner for standards. Nor has Grech said a word to explain why he changed his position after informing the PN “establishment”.

Nor had Grech denied that the PN, under Simon Busuttil’s leadership, included a carbon-copy of the present unblocking mechanism in its 2017 electoral manifesto. Or, in brief, what was right for Busuttil, is wrong for Grech.

If such an unblocking mechanism was considered so important to be included by Busuttil in the PN’s manifesto, how come, today, Grech and his PN colleagues consider it as “anti-democratic”?

Are they saying that Busuttil was undemocratic and had only included it because he may have believed his dream, that he would win the election in 2017 and climb the steps of Castille as prime minister?

Eddy Privitera – Naxxar

Heartfelt gratitude

Peace be with you. I would like to reach out to all the generous people who have helped us and thank them through this publication.

On behalf of the MSSP community in the Philippines, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to the Mission Fund and all benefactors who lately sent a nice donation to help the poor people recover from so many calamities due to the pandemic, rise in the cost of living and natural disasters.

The situation of hardship and poverty in the Philippines is still bad. Many people are still trying to recover from the loss of jobs.

The cost of living has doubled but the wages of the poor have remained the same. We still give regular cooked food to the homeless and the poorest, give food relief and rice weekly to many families, give financial aid to the sick and money for livelihood projects.

We also continue to offer a computer facility for online classes and tutorial classes for students who have no means and gadgets.

The Mission Fund and all their benefactors are part of all this and we thank them from the bottom of our heart. We encourage everyone at this time to share our blessings with others.

This can be done through donations to the Mission Fund and by sending used stamps which will help all Maltese missionaries in Third World countries.

Donations may be made online or by direct bank transfer.

More information may be accessed from the website: www.missionfund.org.mt.

God bless you all.

Fr Stephen Mifsud MSSP – The Philippines

List of gifts

The European Parliament would like to set the record straight regarding the article published in the Times of Malta (January 19) regarding President Roberta Metsola’s unprecedented step to publish the list of protocol gifts received by the institution.

This is the first time that a president has chosen to take such a step. No gifts have been kept by the president. No gifts have left the parliament’s premises. These are protocol gifts made to the institution.

All gifts had been catalogued internally before the president chose to make them available for public scrutiny as she leads the parliament's reform process. No deadlines were missed. No rules were broken.

The publication of the list, even if not required, is intended for her to lead by positive example. She will continue to do so.

Jaume Duch Guillot – Spokesperson, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium