Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
( left - right )SPENCER and PHILLIPS
PEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) caretaker for North East St. Elizabeth, Senator Kern Spencer, has defended the Government's crime-fighting strategies.
Senator Spencer, who is also Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, endorsed National Security Minister Dr. Peter Phillips as the next president of the PNP during the party's East Central St. Andrew annual conference at the Tarrant High School, Kingston, on Sunday.
According to Senator Spencer, the Government has done its best under the current financial constraints.
"People talking all sort a thing about national security but, comrades, when you have a criminal elite out there, having the same resources as what you are presenting as the national budget... they are able to corrupt all sorts of persons," he said.
"And when Dr. Phillips can step to the front and stand up on them, that is why we have put a serious dent into the drug trade," he said.
Senator Spencer also had strong words for Opposition Spokesman on Justice, Derrick Smith, who has been very critical of Dr. Phillips during his tenure in his current ministerial post.
He argued that it was easy for the Opposition to criticise, but Dr. Phillips had done his best.
Earlier this month, Mr. Smith had called on the Prime Minister to carry out an assessment of the national security portfolio.
He had said the call was being made in light of the current high murder and crime statistics.
Mr. Smith had suggested that Dr. Phillips wasn't in a position to devote enough time to handing the security portfolio, while being leader of the House of Represent-atives and campaigning for the leadership of the PNP.
