Teacher Lucio Castro expresses his concern about the actions of the Government of Pedro Castillo to seize the Teacher Spill and its huge funds. He is concerned that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, he is dealing with a criminal organization directed by the head of state. He also refers to the debts that Castillo has with the teachers.
—The Government has initiated actions aimed at taking over the Magisterial Spill. What will Sutep do or what is Sutep doing in the face of this fact?
—We have initiated an amparo action and that legal action is being supported and vindicated by the teachers who are very concerned about the pension entity. There is also the invocation to the Congress of the Republic so that, making use of its oversight role, it raises the repeal or inapplicability of this supreme decree, 09. We understand that there are bills in this regard. The third thing is the social mobilization that we are going to continue developing because we have a rebellious position against this government that to date has not fulfilled electoral commitments and has debts with the teaching profession.
“What are those debts?”
—The President of the Republic spoke of 10% of GDP for Education. He said: a teacher’s salary for the President of the Republic, educational legislation repealed, a UIT for teachers’ remuneration, automatic appointment for teachers. None of that has been fulfilled. That explains the growing malaise, the unease that the workers feel in the face of a government and a president who, in addition to that, shows an inability to govern.
—The teachers supported Pedro Castillo in the second round, right?
—The teachers, the educational assistants, the workers are in a process of growing and unstoppable malaise. This is a situation that has a lot to do with the way the country is being governed and the demonstrated inability to solve the big problems. We teachers supported him because he was a teacher.
—Back to the original topic. What would be the objectives of the Government with the Teacher Spill?
—What the government union, Fenatep, wants to do is seize, manage and misuse the 3 billion capital that our entity has. Remember that Supreme Decree 09 says that who is going to be in charge of the electoral process is the Ministry of Education, which is dominated by the government union. In other words, the electoral committee will be made up of representatives of the government union. Where will the electoral process take place? In entities of the Ministry of Education: ugeles, regional directorates. Who controls and who is present in these entities? The government union.
—Would it mean for Sutep that the government union manages the Teacher Spill?
—What is being worked on here is for the government union to enter and capture the funds of the pension entity and practically destroy them. And we are concerned, as the Public Ministry says, that we are dealing with a criminal organization led by the President of the Republic. And the President of the Republic has his union, which is Fenatep. And who represents Fenatep? There is Mr. Bruno Pacheco, in addition to Francisco Silva, Edgar Tello, Lucinda Vásquez, congressmen of the Republic who prove that they are more involved with corruption, more with crime than with the healthy objective of strengthening and promoting our entity.
—It is also true that there are voices that demand changes in the Magisterial Spill.
—The changes that have to be made in the DM are surely to improve care. But they must be done together with the institution, from the directory, so that the Ministry of Education approves it. And not like now, when the Ministry of Education is doing and undoing, violating the statute, violating the law, the Constitution, the legal regulations.
—The president of Congress, Lady Camones, visited Sutep this week…
-Yes. Some time ago we have started a political relationship campaign visiting congressmen, leaders of caucuses and congressional authorities. What the president of Congress has done is return that attention to Sutep, in order to also directly collect the problems of teachers who are represented by their historic union, which is Sutep. She has visited our premises on Thursday.
“What did they treat?”
—We have sent you our concern regarding the budget for Education, the appointment of teachers, salary increases. And that it assumes the supervisory role against a government that has made use of demagoguery, but that in terms of fulfilling commitments does not have any.
—Some sectors of the government have seen in that visit support for an eventual vacancy of President Castillo…
—We believe that the decisions that are made will respond to the way the country is being governed and the president’s obligation to clarify the complaints he has or the corruption process in which he is involved. In that sense, what we call for is that the Public Ministry advance with its investigations and that the president really contribute to clarifying the truth and that Congress assumes the supervisory and legislative role that corresponds to it. We workers will be attentive to Peru conducting itself within the canons that the Constitution itself establishes.
