Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/560195
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 AUGUST 2015 News 3 SAVIOUR BALZAN NATIONALIST whip David Agius has confirmed with MaltaToday that his father, a bird trapper, had accepted land for a trapping site in fields at Tas-Salib, limits of Rabat, from petrol station and property owner Joe Gaffarena. Confirming once again the ties that Gaffarena has had with many members of the political class, Ag- ius told this newspaper he had been unaware that his father had ac- cepted the parcel of land. "I do not know what my father has done or is doing," he said. Asked if he knew property en- trepreneur Joe Gaffarena, Agius claimed that he never met him or talked to him but had probably seen him during a village feast. He later confirmed that his father had indeed accepted a piece of land to use for trapping songbirds. "It must have been between 2011 and 2012, and my father had offered to pay for the land but Gaffarena had refused to take any money. My fa- ther was asked to return it because Joe Gaffarena had informed him that he needed the land." After 2008, trapping songbirds was banned but it was reintroduced last year by the present administra- tion. Agius could not say why his father carried out bird trapping when this was banned. The trapping site in question lies in a parcel of land which, according to the MEPA map server, was the subject of a planning applica- tion by Gaffarena's son Johann for the construction of a vine- yard and a winery. The permission was granted in 2008. In 2009, MEPA issued an enforcement order on the site after the construction over- stepped its sanctioned footprint. The Gaffarenas have been a re- current feature in the Maltese press since it was revealed that Marco Gaffarena was controversially com- pensated by the Lands Department with €1.65 million in a combined cash and property deal, for the ex- propriation of his 50% ownership of an Old Mint Street building that houses government offices. The offices are those of the Build- ing Industry Consultative Council, whose chairman happens to be Labour MP Charles Buttigieg, who has had professional ties with the Gaffarena family. The compensation is under inves- tigation by the OPM's internal au- dit and investigations department and also the Auditor General, and is believed to have placed pressure on the director of Government Property Division, Ray Camilleri, to resign. While the Nationalist opposi- tion has set much store in claiming that the Gaffarenas had bankrolled various Labour MPs and were now reaping benefits from ministers' largesse – parliamentary secretary for lands Michael Falzon even went on vacation with the Gaffarenas – it was also revealed that even PN dep- uty leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami had offered his legal services to the family. Political links Joe Gaffarena, a PN activist who lent the em- battled opposition some muscle during the vio- lent 1980s, gained noto- riety in the 1990s as the concessionaire for the Daewoo car business, roping in politicians like John Dalli as part of his strategy to curry favour with high-powered indi- viduals. Other business relation- ships he has had include with former Labour parliamenta- ry secretary for the elderly, Louis Buhagiar, and the former PN secretary- general Joe Saliba. "His style is to either sell off his shares or making sure he buys his partner's share when he starts getting cold feet about his partnership," a former associate of Gaffarena who spoke to MaltaTo- day said. A case in point is when he sold his shares in the Daewoo car sales agency to former ambassador Joseph Mary Scicluna. Although Gaffarena's licence to sell the Ko- rean cars was due to expire, and no agreement to renew it was in place, Gaffarena received several proper- ties, including the Three Rocks Ho- tel and a large plot of land in Bahr- ija and the Dacia Car Sales Agency, as well as a cash payment, for his shares in the car business. In the past he enjoyed a very close association with PN heavyweights and Qormi-based ministers George Hyzler and John Dalli. He later fell out with the Nationalist govern- ment at the height of a notorious MEPA enforcement: soldiers were brought in to provide security for MEPA officers to seal off the J. Gaff petrol station in Qormi, which had erected an illegal storey and had il- legalities on 80% of the site. The en- forcement order was issued three months after Joe Saliba stepped down from the post of secretary- general. And the fall-out edged Gaffarena close to Labour. Still, Gaffarena entered into busi- ness with Saliba when they pur- chased a block of apartments in the heart of Paceville, four months after Saliba had relinquished his post in the PN in June 2008. The four apart- ments in Ball Street, which included a penthouse, were purchased at the bargain price of €232,936 in Octo- ber 2008, and resold exactly a year later for €256,000 to BM Holdings & Investments, a company which together with Gaffarena Holdings owns the firm JGMB Estates Lim- ited (directors Joe Gaffarena and Manuel Bonnici). Under Labour in 2014, the Gaf- farena family was granted a tempo- rary clearance to reopen its petrol station in Qormi against a €500,000 bank guarantee. Gaffarena had said that his eight children had suffered "hardship" for five years due to the station's closure. The former parliamentary secre- tary for planning, Michael Farrugia, defended the decision, insisting that everyone should be given an opportunity to regularise their po- sition, and that Gaffarena had been "promised a permit before the elec- tions". But the problems Joe Gaffare- na faced with the petrol station pushed him closer to the govern- ment of the day. His son Marco was for some time, close to the Labour MP Joe M. Sammut, even support- ing his political campaign. At one point both Sammut and Gaffarena were directors of an international trading company, International Tobacco Malta, now in dissolution. Additionally, the Gaffarena fam- ily's involvement with the family of former acting police commis- sioner Ray Zammit raised numer- ous questions of conflicts of inter- est for the family of police officers; and former police inspector Daniel Zammit's conduct in the prosecu- tion of Joe Gaffarena's son-in-law, Stephen Caruana, for murder. The links were the recent subject of an inquiry by Judge Michael Mallia. sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt Whip's dad trapped birds on Gaffarena's land Nationalist whip David Agius did not know that Joe Gaffarena had given his father a piece of land to trap song birds The trapping site on land at Tas-Salib in Rabat, on which Gaffarena was given a permit for a vineyard and winery Archbishop warns of 'diabolical' plans to decriminalise religious vilification TIM DIACONO ARCHBISHOP Charles Scicluna has sounded a strong warning to Parliament over the government's "almost diabolical" plans to de- criminalise the public vilification of religion, and pornography. "We Christians are pious and don't like violence, but neither do we enjoy being provoked," Scicluna wrote in Sunday's edition of Church newspaper Lehen is-Sewwa. "We cherish the Eucharist and the Ma- donna and we expect everyone, even those who don't agree with our beliefs, to at least respect them. "We shouldn't be afraid and we should sound a clear message. Par- liament can do what it wants, and we too will do what we want when the time comes." Justice minister Owen Bonnici in July presented a package of laws that will fine tune the Criminal Code, including amendments to re- move laws that punish the vilifica- tion of the Roman Catholic religion "and other cults tolerated by law". Such laws have been in place since 1933. The Bill also proposes the de- criminalisation of pornography, so as to "provide for the better imple- mentation of the right to freedom of expression". The Church has already issued a position paper against both de- criminalisation proposals, and in his Lehen is-Sewwa article, Sciclu- na called on everybody who loves saints to "find the courage to de- fend them from vilification". "We are not imposing our faith on others," the Archbishop wrote. "All we are asking is for people to respect us by respecting what we cher- ish. People can express themselves as they wish, so long as they don't start insulting us. If people want to express themselves by insulting us, then we cannot be expected to keep our hands tied and ignore it." The Archbishop also had harsh words for the proposed decrimi- nalisation of pornography, which he warned is akin to insulting hu- man dignity. He cited Pope Francis who had said in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in France that it is wrong to provoke others by insulting their religion, illustrat- ing his argument by saying that he would "punch anyone who cursed his mother". In a prayer to the Madonna, he said that: "if the law won't defend you, then we [Christians] will – not through violence, but by becoming even more devoted to you."