Santo Domingo. – Attorney Félix Damián Olivares believes that in the constitutional reform proposal submitted to the Senate by President Luis Abinader, the part of the Public Ministry (MP) must be observed because it would be risky to apply the changes proposed in this part.
“I understand that the president should continue to be able to appoint the attorney general and half of the deputies in order to be able to draw up the general policies of his administration,” said Olivares.
He indicated that the Constitution in its article 4 is clear with regard to the three powers of the State: the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial, pointing out that the nature of the Public Prosecutor’s Office It comes from the Executive, not the judiciary or the legislature.
The jurist pointed out that the MP is there to enforce criminal laws and that it must be clear that this is an executive function, since the Public Prosecutor’s Office is an organic part of the Executive Branch.
“The issue is that it is not healthy for the MP to be a fourth or fifth power of the State, or a second Executive Power. It cannot be! That is improper and dangerous, and we should not be subject to current circumstances because what I am saying is not something I take out of my pocket, it is something I have maintained for more than 30 years,” warned Olivares.
He said that these changes proposed in the constitutional reform proposal, with regard to the MP, are dangerous “because such a formidable power as determining what is investigated, how it is investigated, who is investigated, who is prosecuted, even citing the law… such a formidable power needs someone ultimately responsible and it cannot be that this person is removed by a crisis and a political trial.”
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Olivares warned that creating a crisis to remove a prosecutor who is not articulating the prosecution policy well is more damaging than having a decree to replace him.
Another risk he pointed out is that a president does not have a fluid relationship with the head of the MP, since the Executive Branch has the obligation to enforce the law and avoid any type of situation that disrupts society.
“How can you guarantee the faithful execution of criminal laws if you do not have a mechanism to communicate with that category of officials in charge of enforcing the law?” Olivares asked during his participation in the program Reseñas, hosted by journalists Rafael Núñez and Adelaida Martínez R., every Saturday at 9:00 p.m. on Entelevisión.
Attorney Olivares said he does not believe in anti-politics and believes that politicians should not lose their rights to perform public functions.
Two terms and they never get accepted again
Regarding the proposal to limit power so that it is established and the Constitution cannot be modified in relation to two periods and never again at the presidential level, lawyer Félix Damián Olivares pointed out that this has always had a lot of social acceptance.
Regarding the stone clauses, he explained that these indicate that there is an agreement in which it is accepted that, for example, that is the form of government and that to change that there would have to be a violent rupture of the constitutional order and the forced imposition of another model, as has occurred in Venezuela.
Proposal to reduce deputies will not affect congressmen
On the point of the Executive Branch’s reform proposal that contemplates the reduction of the number of deputies, Olivares pointed out that this may not affect congressmen if formulas are used that allow for a reduction in the cost of elections and the harmful effects of the current electoral design.
“If the reform introduces a single-member district at the level of the Electoral Law, we could avoid many of the problems that are occurring in current political activity, because once the party has chosen the candidate for the District, it is no longer in dispute with its colleagues, there is no competition with the other colleagues who are fighting to be first on the list,” he reasoned.
He explained that if they are single-member districts, the scope is reduced, there are fewer expenses because the campaign is reduced and people with a certain level of integrity will be able to compete because the party will have to put forward the best candidate and that he is from that community “not a riffraff, and excuse me, nor an environmental predator nor people with capital of spurious origin.
“This may be convenient for those in Congress because it will save them resources,” reiterated the lawyer, who added that “if this reform is well explained and better applied, by managing to avoid this, it is possible to improve the quality of the political system.”
“The best constitutional reform is the one that is not done”
Although jurist Félix Damián Olivares is one of those who thinks that the Constitution should not be touched, he believes that the purposes of President Luis Abinader, in his proposed constitutional reform, are full of good intentions, because it goes against the historical current by proposing to limit power.
“I have always had a position, which is not new, and that is that the best constitutional reform is the one that is not made,” said the jurist, who recalled that of the 39 constitutional reforms that have been made, 36 were made to affect the presidential reelection.
He called for an example of Costa Rica and the United States, countries that he said have traditional republican constitutions, pointing out that in the North American case, amendments are used “and the truth is that these democratic systems have worked without having to make a revolution or revise all the institutions, that is, there has been a permanence over time.”
However, he pointed out that this does not mean that constitutions are untouchable and that even some authors who call for understanding that dialectics and social changes at some point require it.
