Santo Domingo.-The block of deputies of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) withdrew from the session this Thursday in disgust with the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) for allegedly conquering mayors from the purple organization, which was rejected by the official bench.
The departure of the peledeistas did not affect the quorum for the session (which is a minimum of 96 present), so it continued.
Juan Julio Campos, PLD spokesman in the Lower House, after exhausting a previous shift in the chamber, denounced that government train officials use public money from the Presidency of the Republic to drag opposition councilors to the perremeist current.
“In a shameless way from the Presidency of the Republic with the help of Víctor de Aza, general secretary of the Dominican Municipal League; Kelvin Cruz, mayor of the municipality of La Vega; José Ignacio Paliza, Administrative Minister of the Presidency; and Deligne Ascensión Burgos, Minister of Public Works, have been using discretionary resources from the national budget in favor of PRM party interests, ”he said, indicating that the PLD bloc will request the interpellation of the aforementioned government agents.
The legislator reminded the Plenary that this complaint was presented to the Central Electoral Board, which promised to investigate the matter, however, “until now it has not done or said anything.”
“The Dominican Liberation Party and other opposition parties have been repeatedly denouncing the implementation of a gross corruption practice by the Government…, which threatens the development of the democratic system in our country: we are referring to the indiscriminate purchase with public money from elected municipal officials, by the opposition parties”, he accused.
He explained that the aforementioned officials first make promises to the mayors and then grant money “to all those municipalities and municipal districts whose authorities become part of the PRM, thus turning them into political defectors; discriminating against all those municipalities and municipal districts whose authorities do not submit to their proposals”.
According to Campos, in one year (between 2021 and 2022), 33 mayors and directors of municipal boards of the PLD, Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) and Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) parties were bought by the government for “assignments specials” promoted by the four public servants.
“The block of deputies of the Dominican Liberation Party announces that we are going to request the interpellation of Víctor D` Aza, Kelvin Cruz, José Ignacio Paliza and Deligne Asención, so that they render an account before this chamber of the corrupt practice that we are denouncing, to For the purposes of preparing the interpellation resolution, our block withdraws from today’s session,” he said as they left the session room.
Officialism rejects accusation
The denouncement of the opposition bloc generated the rejection of the perremeist bench and the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC).
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, described the statements of Juan Julio Campos as “inconsiderate” and “tremendous”, and reminded him that “luckily he has immunity”, as established by the Constitution, since otherwise he would be I would see with justice.
“If it were not said here, with the affection that I have for him, if I were one of those mentioned, I would resort to the courts of the Republic,” he commented at a time when the peledeístas left the chamber.
According to Pacheco, the real reason why the PLD legislators aborted the session is because they believed that they were going to break the quorum, knowing that the electoral regime bill would reach the Lower House.
“That is the hidden reason why they left, the real reason,” said the legislator, alluding to the issue of political turncoats that have been criticized by the peledeistas, who asked for strong sanctions against this practice.
On his side, Julito Fulcar, spokesman for the PRM in the Chamber of Deputies, when requesting a turn, rejected Campos’ approach and expressed that the PLD has no moral quality for these allegations since it wanted to make the PRD disappear.
“That they do not want to throw internal problems that this party has at the PRM (…). No one is guilty that a citizen in full civil law makes the decision to withdraw from one organization and participate in another,” he said.
Pedro Botello
In his previous turn, Pedro Botello, spokesman for the PRSC in the Chamber, refuted the PLD statements and said that the party of the colorao rooster has suffered the “pelliscadítas” of the PLD, an entity that, in his opinion, did a lot of damage to the democratic system .
