Santo Domingo.- President Luis Abinader announced this Wednesday that the Legal Consultancy of the Executive Power has already worked on a bill for the creation of a Ministry of Justice.
The president also communicated that at this time and before the citizens, he instructs the Consultant to immediately initiate a process of exchange and consultations with academic entities, professional and business associations, as well as associations linked to legal practice, such as the Institutional Foundation. and Justice (FINJUS), to be presented to the National Congress on February 27.
“Our proposal is that this be the body responsible for handling administrative matters that currently imply an unnecessary burden for the Public Ministry and that defocus it from its role of directing the criminal investigation and exercising public action on behalf of society,” Abinader expressed during an event organized by Finjus.
The president explained that institutions such as the Administrative Attorney General’s Office, the National Institute of Forensic Sciences, the management of seized assets or the National Penitentiary System, among others, would pass to this Ministry of Justice, without this implying an additional cost in the budget. of the State.
“With this we will fulfill one of the government proposals that we presented years ago and that has been long demanded by the sector’s own actors,” he said.
Abinader emphasized that his government is clear about its model for this country and will not rest until it makes the Dominican Republic a State of Law with independent justice, effective and democratic police forces, and equal citizens before the law.
He said that completely freeing the Public Ministry from political interference was one of the greatest aspirations of the people and of him personally and “we have achieved it.”
“Now we must guarantee that this becomes irreversible, that is why we proposed a reform of the Constitution whose main purpose is to eliminate the discretion of the President of the Republic when appointing the head of this body of the justice system and half of his deputies,” he said. .
He stressed that this is one of the few constitutional reform initiatives in history that seeks to reduce the influence of the Executive Power over the other powers, instead of increasing it.
President Abinader offered this information during the commemorative event for the 32nd anniversary of Finjus, accompanied by its executive vice president and the president of the Board of Directors, Servio Tulio Castaños and Rafael del Toro Gómez, respectively.
“I must not fail to refer, due to the importance and transcendence that it implies for the country’s institutions, to the fact that last August we deposited in Congress the bill on contentious-administrative jurisdiction, which, if approved, As I hope, it will be a milestone in guaranteeing the effective judicial protection of the rights of people in their relations with the Public Administration”, highlighted Abinader.
“This in addition, regulating the organization and functioning of the superior administrative courts and contentious-administrative courts of first instance enshrined in the Constitution.”
He said that “this law will regulate everything related to the contentious-administrative procedure, including object, phases, terms, capacity and procedural legitimacy, representation and defense of the Public Administration, precautionary measures, as well as everything related to the sentence and its execution, among others. forms of termination of the process, and the respective resources enabled.
“As you can see, we are working to strengthen the independence of justice, which, being a guarantee and professional, does not bow down to anything or anyone,” he said.
