WILLEMSTAD — With only several hours to go until the elections, the discussion on the presence of oil continues vehemently. The MFK held a press conference yesterday to indicate the presence of oil and gas in the Curaçao waters, thus wagging his finger at the PAR and their former leader/premier Etienne Ys, who now accuses the MFK of telling lies.

During the press conference yesterday Schotte showed documents and charts to prove that in the past numerous documents were signed by previous governments under PAR-persuasion regarding the presence of oil and gas on Curaçao. This is not the first time that Schotte has proved this. At the beginning of his premiership, in November 2010, during a meeting of the Parliament he elaborated on his proposition that PAR-premiers entered into agreements with international oil companies without being authorized to do so. According to Schotte, once his government is installed it will work on getting the petroleum legislation through the Parliament as soon as possible so that interested oil companies can begin with the exploration for oil in the Curaçao waters.

Former PAR-premier Etienne Ys clearly disagrees with Schotte. On being asked, he said Schotte is lying in an attempt to conceal all the commotion around his party. “His lying has reached the point where it even becomes pathological. We’re talking about someone who said on TV that Curaçao would compete at the Olympic Games under its own flag, knowing full well that his blatant lie would be revealed the very next day.”

According to Ys, numerous lies were told during the press conference. “The law that was drawn up under my government clearly states that all minerals will go to the Netherlands Antilles and now Curaçao; in other words, only to the people of the island. That law was introduced because without a law one cannot grant concessions. Three concessions were indeed signed but I wish I had signed ten concessions. This means more companies are interested in investigating the presence of oil. And, there was a ship, but we hadn’t asked that ship to come to the island. It was in the neighborhood and we took advantage of that.” The former PAR-leader wonders why Schotte traveled to Trinidad to sign an agreement for the delivery of natural gas if he’s so convinced there is natural gas on the island.