Falzon slams PN's ‘political jealousy and hatred’ in Gaffarena controversy

Planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon struck out at the Nationalist Party’s vocal opposition to the controversial expropriation of half a property in Old Mint Street, Valletta, saying that he has “learnt at what level certain people will stoop down in their political jealousy and hatred”.

“I’ve helped some of these people out from my heart,” the embattled parliamentary secretary said at a public consultation session in the ‘Gvern li Jisma’ series. “I did not interfere at all in the expropriation negotiations or in the evaluation of the property.”

While admitting that the deal could have been carried out better, he insisted that he had personally done nothing illegal.

He pointed out that that Joseph Spiteri, one of the government-appointed architects who tagged Marco Gaffarena's 50% ownership of the Old Mint Street property at €1.65 million, was the head of a department within the Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta and lectures in evaluations of property.

“How can I, a lawyer, instruct him how to evaluate property?” Falzon asked, while pointing out that a second architect involved in the evaluation had once run for a local council election under the PN ticket.

He heavily criticised a recent interview aired on NET TV in which Alfred Martin claimed that the government had taken 'his' land at Bahar ic-Caghaq that he had been renting for decades, to now hand it over to Mark Gaffarena, the businessman at the centre of the expropriation controversy.

“That is a lie,” Falzon said. “Under the previous administration, the secretariat of [then lands parliamentary secretary] Jason Azzopardi had given instructions to evict him from his land. Besides, Martin hasn’t paid rent on that land since 1989 and one of the rent conditions was that he couldn’t build on that land for recreational purposes. Martin said that he had spoken to three female lawyers from the Lands Department, which is also a lie.”

He argued that the government has now acquired half a palace in Valletta that has a “unique wooden roof” and that it will allocate funds in the next Budget to compensate everyone whose properties were expropriated over the years, so long as the property’s value doesn’t exceed €50,000.

Shooting range decision in ‘country’s best interests’

During question time, Alison Vella, communications officer for the Maltese Jesuit Province, objected to the potential development of a shooting range at Busbesija, Mosta that abuts on the Jesuits’ popular retreat home of Mount St. Joseph.

“Many people seek for places of rest in a retreat house like Mount St. Joseph, and 12,000 people have already signed a petition calling on the government not to build a shooting range there,” Vella said, while appealing to the government to build the shooting range elsewhere and not on ODZ land.

“Although no contracts have yet been signed, it seems as though Busbesija has already been chosen as a location,” she said, pointing out that parliamentary secretary for sports Chris Agius and the Malta Shooting Sports Federation have already bid for the 2017 shooting World Cup. “They must definitely have offered a venue, so which one?”

Falzon retorted that the government hasn’t yet taken a concrete decision on the siting of the shooting range and will choose the proposal that is “in the country’s best interest”. He appealed for a “sense of perspective” as Russian-owned U-Group, the preferred bidder for the shooting range, had proposed a shooting range at Busbesija to MEPA back in 2012.

‘SPED renders ODZ a last resort’

Falzon leapt to the defence of the controversial Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) draft, which Din l-Art Helwa has warned will allow projects deemed to be ‘unfeasible’ within urban zones to be built in outside development zones.

“According to the SPED, all potential projects must first be considered on built-up land, and then on land that can be regenerated, and then on developable zones, and on ODZ as a last resort,” Falzon said.

“We don’t want to build on ODZ land, but we cannot say that nothing can be built on ODZ land,” he argued. “What if we want to build a waste recycling plant or a place for juvenile rehabilitation? Where will we build them, in Amery Street in Sliema?”