"We have nothing to hide" -says PM Mark Phillips on MV Barima ferry tragedy

What this source establishes

News Source Guyana reports Prime Minister Mark Phillips committing on the night of 21 July to an independent Commission of Inquiry and saying the government has 'nothing to hide', as the toll reached 53. The report records the first reported instance of divers reaching the wreckage and identifying a body they could not retrieve. It also records the upward revision of survivors to 76 as previously uncounted rescues were added. This is the earliest government commitment to a Commission of Inquiry in this manifest.

Figures cited in this source

53 bodies recovered; more than 55 still missing; 76 survivors

Key claims

• As the number of bodies recovered climbed to 53 with more than 55 persons still missing, Prime Minister Mark Phillips declared the Government has nothing to hide and will ensure an independent Commission of Inquiry.
• Phillips told reporters: 'I want to reassure you that we have nothing to hide. I believe and I live for transparency'.
• Divers reached the wreckage and identified one body inside it but were unable to retrieve it.
• Phillips said: 'More divers will go down and with more equipment and it is our hope that they will be able to extract the body from the vessel...'
• Additional support was coming in from Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil.
• There had been no sign of life in the past two days and the search area was further widened.
• The total number of survivors stood at 76, as persons rescued but not immediately recorded as rescued had now been counted.

Quotations

• “I want to reassure you that we have nothing to hide. I believe and I live for transparency”— Mark Phillips, Prime Minister of Guyana

This page is a research summary prepared for comment and review. It is not the article. Copyright in the original remains with News Source Guyana; the full text is held only in the private research corpus from which this archive was compiled. Follow the link above to read it at the source.