Congress. Senators and deputies received between 475 thousand pesos and up to more than half a million pesos in bonuses for Mother’s Day, an activity that the country celebrates every year on the last Sunday of May.
The vice president of the Senate and member of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Santiago Zorrilla, told elCaribe that each legislator of that House received 600,000 pesos as gifts for mothers, distributed in 600 bonds of 1,000 pesos each. , in cards that are activated with the identity card of the person who receives it.
This chamber has 32 senators, which gives a total of 19,200,000 pesos (RD$19,200,000.00), in case everyone takes the appeal.
“There are 600 vouchers, a thousand pesos each, a province that has 86,000 inhabitants in the last census and today has more than 100,000, tell me what I would do with 600 vouchers,” explained Zorrilla, referring to the province of El Seibo, the which one it represents.
Other senators who were also consulted by this means to confirm if they had this amount or more, fled from the issue as “the devil to the cross”, a scene that was repeated in the Lower House. Of the deputies approached by elCaribe, only Soraya Suárez, secretary of the Chamber’s management firm and member of the PRM, “showed their faces”; and Pedro Botello, belonging to the Christian Social Reformist Party (PRSC).
According to the congressmen, they received the amount of 475 thousand pesos distributed in three types of bonuses: 300 thousand in bonuses to buy in stores (of 500 and 1,000 pesos each); 100 bonuses, of one thousand pesos each in “Mother’s Day Bonus” cards; and 50 “Bono Navideño” cards (expiring on June 30), of 1,500 pesos each.
Details
Soraya Suárez considered that the RD$1,000 cards come from the Social Plan of the Presidency. “I understand that it was only a thousand. It is not at all certain, because they simply hand us over, but when the thousand of the Social Plan of the Presidency arrived, I was in the Chamber, I saw the dismantling, and there were 1,000, “said the representative of Santiago.
He explained that there are congressmen who do not want to reveal or talk about the exact amount received and say a lower amount, because “they will want to hide it due to some situation”, but “we all did not care, I can assure you, (Alfredo) Pacheco does not make a difference with no one”.
On his side, Pedro Botello indicated that in his case, they gave him Christmas bonuses that “even expire now: 75 thousand pesos in Christmas bonuses; 100 thousand pesos in bonuses for the mothers, which were sent by the Government; and 300 thousand pesos in bonuses for “purchases of 500 and one thousand pesos”.
He said he went to the store and bought everything in appliances and raffled them off to the mothers of La Romana. “I don’t know how much they gave to the others, but that’s what they gave Pedro Botello. That was what I received”, justified the congressman. He denounced that in the National Congress a procedure must be established, since things are dealt with “according to the political party, bloc or size.”
He added that in the bicameral body it is necessary to be clear and responsible, and that “when they are going to remove those blessed bonds, they must remove it, period, but that the people do not ask you… the people want everything, but they do not want that they give you in Congress”. “The Chamber gave me everything, I don’t know if the Government sent it or whoever sent it, I receive everything that corresponds to me through the Chamber. What I regret is that some are given more and others are given less”, concluded Botello.
Anonymous deputies reduce amount received
Other deputies who were also consulted by this means, but who asked “not to reveal their names”, indicated that the amount received in bonuses for each one for Mother’s Day was 100 thousand pesos (RD$ 100,000.00). They stressed that this is the standard amount, although they explained that there is the possibility that some obtain more bonuses “looking for it from the outside.” Meanwhile, other deputies revealed that the bonus amount that each legislator received ranges from RD$100,000 (RD$100,000) to RD$300,000 pesos (RD$300,000.00), depending on the “enclave” or rapprochement that he has with the Presidency. elCaribe requested from the Office of Free Access to Information of the two legislative chambers the official data of the amount received by each legislator for the celebration of Mother’s Day, without receiving a response so far. The Lower House currently has 189 active legislators, of the 190 that make it up (since there is one detained in Miami for drug trafficking issues), which multiplied by the $475,000 pesos in bonds (RD$475,000.00), would amount to RD$89 million. 775 thousand pesos (RD$89,775,000.00). This in case everyone took it.
