The Minister of Education, Rosendo Sernatried to justify the offensive phrases launched by the President of the Council of Ministers, Aníbal Torres, against Cardinal Pedro Barreto during an interview and assured that it was a “colloquial term”.
Serna pointed out that he spoke with the prime minister regarding his statements, where he described the cardinal as being a “miserable person”. In that sense, he said that he gave him an explanation behind the offense.
“We were talking and the premier gave an explanation. There is a colloquial term when sometimes one does not remember the name of a person, I think that at that moment he has pointed it out like this. It seems to me that there is a moment situation that occurred, but that is the explanation”, he declared in dialogue with Canal N.
LOOK: ProCiencia has awarded 406 million soles in grants for the country’s scientific development
“I think we all deserve respect and we all deserve consideration. At certain times colloquial aspects should not be taken into account, they should not be expressed in any case. But the premier has pointed it out at the press conference”, he added.
Likewise, the head of the Ministry of Education argued that if there is no coexistence or friendship, this supposed colloquial term can be understood in a different way.
Finally, Rosendo Serna asserted that there should be an internal dialogue between Hannibal Torres and the cardinal Peter Barrett where “those rough edges are smoothed out and if you have to ask for those apologies of the case, you have to do it”.
Aníbal Torres speaks out
During the press conference of the Presidency Council of Ministers (PCM), the head of the cabinet assured that the phrases launched against Barreto “they have not gone with the purpose of offending”.
“It was an interview they did to me about it. I didn’t remember the name of the cardinal, so I said: ‘this person can be so miserable that I don’t even remember his name’, or something like that, which is a popular saying that is used everywhere, including in Lima. That has been, but it has not been with the purpose of offending”, he expressed.
