Philipsburg, Sint Maarten — On Tuesday, February 11th 2025, NAPB- Sint Maarten took to the media to express the increasing frustrations and discontent of their members with respect to not having received their national decrees. As a result of this, on Wednesday February 12th 2025, the board of NAPB- Sint Maarten was invited by the Prime Minister to have a meeting and the grievances of the members were related to him. These grievances were then relayed to the Hon. Minister of Justice in hopes of receiving some clarity on the remaining batches of National decrees.
NAPB- Sint Maarten was then accused of “using misinformation and public tactics to create unnecessary unrest.” NAPB- Sint Maarten’s President, Marcus Pantophlet, would like to state for the record, that this Police Union has no political and/or self-serving motives other than the well-being of its members. In addition to this, the Minister of Justice made reference in her newspaper article of “two representatives actively participating in finalization of the batches.” These two individuals were not acting independently as NAPB-Sint Maarten representatives but as employees of KPSM (The Sint Maarten Police Force) in a show of good faith to help assist with the processing of the National Decrees. They assisted in processing of Batch 13 and performed their tasks up until the validation of the national decrees in batch 13. Batch 13 was validated with the team and the legal advisor, Ms. Peggy-Ann Brandon On November 14th 2024. The only thing left to do was to draft the LBs and present the final version to the incoming Minister of Justice. The final version was never returned and up to this present moment, we haven’t seen the final version of batch 13.
NAPB-Sint Maarten has been seeking clarity of Batch 13 dating back to the 27th of November 2024. During a meeting held by the Hon. Prime Minister, Minister Tackling told the Unions that were present that batch 13 was being worked on and that the Secretary General would contact us soon about this. In addition to this, on the same day, a letter was sent to the Minister of Justice requesting a meeting. Said meeting would then take place the following year; January 9th 2025 to be precise.
On January 9th 2025, NAPB- Sint Maarten had a meeting with Minister Tackling and her support staff. The union got the impression that the National decrees were still far from being completed and that the Honorable Minister of Justice and her support staff were only concerned with “Checks and balances” of the processing of the National Decrees.
In another attempt to gain clarity about batch 13, The board members of NAPB-Sint Maarten met with the chief of staff, Mr. Cecil Nicolas on February 1st 2025. Another aim of this meeting was to seek avenues in having the process of the national decrees more streamlined in order for distribution of the national decrees in the future. Mr. Nicolas also told board members of the union that batch 13 was being worked on and that there were less than 25 National decrees in said batch. At the ending of said meeting, Mr. Nicolas stated that he would then discuss these issues with the Minister of justice. However, To date, NAPB-Sint Maarten has no clue if this event transpired.
President of NAPB-Sint Maarten, Marcus Pantophlet, says that his members deserve the dignity and respect, which is not reflected in the back and forth, unproductive approach by the ministry to give a clear cut answer on batch 13 of the National Decrees. which constitutes unprofessionalism in the highest form on behalf of the ministry. Having empathy for the justice workers who are awaiting to receive their National Decrees is a very kind gesture but this will not suffice as a solution to the problem as the members have been more than patient as they await what is owed to them.
NAPB- Sint Maarten remains committed to ensuring that the rights and needs of its members are met and in this light urges government officials to provide a clear and transparent timeline as to when this issue with respect to the National Decrees will be resolved.
