Santo Domingo.- The Juan Pablo Duarte Teachers’ Union rejected on Tuesday the proposal of the Minister of Education, Ángel Hernández, to use the funds of the National Institute of Teachers’ Welfare (INABIMA) to finance the retirement salary of pensioners and retirees of the Ministry.
Professor Miguel Ángel Fernández, candidate for the presidency of the ADP for the Juan Pablo Duarte faction, said that the minister’s proposal seeks to favor the elites and owners of the pension fund insurers (AFPs) to seize the RD$143 billion “that teachers have been accumulating with sacrifice to have decent pensions.”
According to the Juan Pablo Duarte Current, the teachers’ pension funds are not managed by the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP) but by INABIMA, an institution attached to the Minerd and of which Minister Ángel Hernández is the president of the board of directors.
“He is therefore well aware that pension funds are still not sufficient to support the wage burden that is required.”
“Teachers’ pensions and retirements are paid from the Minerd budget, due to the contributions of teachers during more than 35 years of work, when in 2008 it was decided to create the fund, the money was not there. Previous governments had spent it, so it was agreed to pay pensions from the budget for 30 years while the pension fund is being fed,” explained Miguel Ángel Fernández in a press conference held at the facilities of the Dominican Association of Teachers (ADP).
They will defend conquest
The Juan Pablo Duarte Teachers’ Union recalled that INABIMA funds are a historic achievement of the ADP under the presidency of Professor María Teresa Cabrera, and warned that the teachers’ sector will not allow them to be taken away.
“We call on the Minister of Education to desist from this adventure of the financial elites, owners of the AFPs, with the support of sectors of the current government, who have in their sights to attack the ADP so that teachers cannot fight and defend themselves,” says the statement in which Juan Pablo Duarte alerts the teaching profession of the plans against the union and the achievements of the teachers.
“We stand firm against the boss. We will not change, we will not sell out or bend,” the statement concludes.
We invite you to read: Former prisoners will be able to open savings accounts
