Santo Domingo.- The former president of the Republic, Leonel Fernandezdescribed on Wednesday as “unnecessary” the project that seeks to reform the Constitution of the Republic.
Likewise, Fernández considered it “hyperbolic” and an “excess of optimism” that President Luis Abinader described the constitutional reform as “unprecedented in the history of the Dominican Republic” in the letter sent to the National Congress for approval.
“I don’t know why it was so hyperbolic, because a reform that only contemplates four elements compared to a comprehensive reform in 2010, I don’t see in what sense it is unprecedented in the history of the Dominican Republic. You can check it out. I think there is a hyperbolic vision in this government with everything, right? But to say that there is a reform with four points that is unprecedented, I think it is an excess of optimism with respect to itself,” he said during his participation in the Weekly Luncheon of the Corripio Communications Group.
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He argued that the Constitution of the Republic, specifically in its Article 170, establishes an independent Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is why he points out that “what already exists cannot be reinforced and consolidated.”
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office enjoys functional, administrative and budgetary autonomy. It exercises its functions in accordance with the principles of legality, objectivity, unity of action, hierarchy, indivisibility and responsibility,” the president of the Fuerza del Pueblo party quoted from the Constitution.
He added that “the Public Prosecutor’s Office is not subordinate to the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch or the Judicial Branch. When you find a power that does not depend on the Executive, the Legislative or the Judicial Branch, what kind of power is it in constitutional doctrine? An autonomous power. It is a superpower, it is an extrapower.”
The lawyer also said that in legal tradition, the attorney general is appointed by the president, both in the Dominican Republic and in other countries.
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He also said that a person should not be disqualified from running for public office for being part of a political party. “When they are not affiliated, they are sympathetic, let’s not fool ourselves.”
“It will always depend on the personal qualities of the individual, whether they are qualified, whether they are competent, their morality, their ethical sense of life. You have to select people for who they are,” he said.
Regarding the reduction of deputies, he proposes that the 190 legislators based on representation be maintained, even if the population increases over the years.
Present at the meeting were the vice president of the Fuerza del Pueblo party, Radhamés Jiménez; the member of the Political Directorate, Nathanael Concepción; the former senator José Rafael Vargas; the Secretary of Education, Josefina Pimentel and the Secretary of Communications, Omar Liriano.
