CAMPAIGN organiser for the Opposition People’s National Party, Dr Peter Phillips said Prime Minister Bruce Golding must testify at the commission of enquiry into the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke/Manatt, Phelps & Phillips episode, for the outcome to have any credibility.

“Of course I expect him to testify; he is critical to the whole thing. He was the one who told the people of Jamaica from Parliament that he sanctioned the matter…,” Phillips told Sunday Observer.

It was Phillips — a former minister of national security and Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Central — who blew the whistle on the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair which has since rocked the Government of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). He first raised the issue in March this year after a standoff between Kingston and Washington erupted over the latter’s request for Coke’s extradition on drug-trafficking and gun-running charges.

But Golding said the Government refused to sign the extradition warrant, maintaining that Coke’s constitutional rights were breached.

It later emerged that Manatt was engaged to lobby the US Government in the matter of its extradition request. But while Golding said it was the JLP that hired Manatt, the US law firm said it was the Jamaican Government.

Phillips says Golding is central to the commission of enquiry, which he said yes to last week.

“I cannot see how he would not testify. Anyway you take it, he has to testify. He said he sanctioned it (Manatt engagement) on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). He is head of the JLP. If on the other hand, it was a Government-sanctioned affair, then he is head of the party that forms the Government. There can be no escape from testifying…,” Phillips insisted.

Should Golding testify before the commission, he would be the second prime minister to testify while in office, after late former Prime Minister Michael Manley.

Manley appeared before Commissioner Kenneth Smith to answer questions about the June 19, 1976 State of Emergency, which saw hundreds arrested and detained indefinitely.

The December 15 general elections that year were conducted under the State of Emergency and several Opposition members were arrested during the period, among them Pearnel Charles, the current Minister of Labour and Social Security, and Olivia Grange, the current Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture.