The decision was made by the Third Criminal Court of the Circuit with Knowledge Function of Bogotá.
The Ministry of Health described as inadmissible the incident of contempt decided by the Third Criminal Court of the Circuit with Judgment Function of Bogotá, against the minister of health, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo for an alleged non-compliance with Ruling T-343 of 2022 of the Constitutional Court.
In a statement, the entity warned that it will go to the level of consultation before the Superior Court of the Judicial District of Bogotá in order to demonstrate that this action is inappropriate.
“In accordance with the principle of legality, public entities can only do what the law expressly authorizes them to do, by virtue of which, within the framework of their legal functions and regulations, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection cannot carry out any additional administrative actionsince it is a matter of competence of the ICA,” he indicated.
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Additionally, it is worth clarifying that the structure of the national public administration is made up of administrative sectors, and the ICA does not belong to the health sector nor is it attached or linked to this Ministerial Portfolio.
“For this reason, it is not appropriate to exercise guardianship control or surveillance of the aforementioned entity of the agricultural, fishing and rural development sector”, held.
He stressed that the inconsistency of the judicial order in question must be noted, since, when the incident of contempt against the ICA was filed, the entity that is in charge of complying with the court order, due to theft of matter, had to decide the same regarding the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
He specified that the ruling is not final, since it must provide the degree of consultation, in accordance with the provisions of article 52 of Decree Law 2591 of 1991.
“The Honorable Constitutional Court in Ruling T-343 of 2022 ordered, mainly, that the marketing of agricultural chemicals with the active component Chlorpyrifos be suspended and immediately eliminated, an issue that legally and regulatoryly is the exclusive competence of the Colombian Agricultural Institute – ICA; and, tangentially, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection was ordered to provide support to said institute for compliance with the aforementioned order,” he explained.
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He stressed that said order was complied with in its entirety by the ICA, with the support of this Ministerial Portfolio, with the issuance of Resolution No. 6365 of June 6, 2023.
“By which the order of the Constitutional Court in Sentence T-343 of 2022 is complied with, in which the following measures were adopted: (i) the immediate suspension of the marketing in the national territory of chemical products for agricultural use and livestock that contain Chlorpyrifos in their composition; (ii) the immediate denial and rejection of requests for registration procedures for products for agricultural use that contain Chlorpyrifos; (iii) the definitive elimination of the use in the national territory of the aforementioned products; and (iv) the imposition of sanctions for non-compliance with the aforementioned measures,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Health, there is a current lack of purpose due to “facts surpassed”, since the competent entity, that is, the ICA, has already fully complied with the order of the Honorable Constitutional Court.
