The civic watchdog organization, Participación Ciudadana issued a statement on 19 May 2021. It criticizes that with nine months of government, the Abinader administration has not taken firm actions to eliminate corrupt practices in government. PC is the local chapter of Transparency International.
PC criticized that the corresponding audits have not been started.
PC called for a comprehensive reform of the military and police bodies to put an end to the general perception in the country that the military and police lack transparency, handle public resources at will to benefit higher up echelons that exhibit fortunes and lifestyles that they cannot justify. At the same time, most of the ranks live and work in conditions of sacrifice and precariousness.
The press release reads:
“We are tired of hearing that local military or police chiefs, as well as other middle and lower ranks, linked to crimes and corruption offenses are transferred to another locality where new populations are subject to the same abuses. The few who receive sanctions are taken to military prisons where they mock society by maintaining their privileges.”
PC criticizes that they continue to hear the same complaints of situations that have not been corrected, such as military and police in the service of private companies and persons, in transactions that benefit the higher ranks.
PC called for an end to the practie of under the disguise of specialties, a group of privileged military and police receive high incomes granted in an arbitrary manner and under schemes of corruption and influence trafficking.
PC saluted the efforts of the National Drug Control Agency (DNCD), now under the leadership of José Manuel Cabrera Ulloa. The DNCD has reported a record number of drug confiscations (24 tons of cocaine seized). PC says that these efforts are not enough because they have not reached to the roots of the drug trafficking networks in the country.
“Numerous forms of corruption are reported as daily practices in organizations that are called to be an example of honesty and patriotism. In all the scandals related to organized crime there has been evidence that criminals have the active protection of military and police of all ranks. It is enough to remember the cases of José David Figueroa Agosto, Arturo del Tiempo, Quirino Ernesto Paulino Marmolejos, Ramón Antonio del Rosario Puente (alias Toño Leña), César Emilio Peralta (alias César el Abusador), among others”, says the organization.
PC said that the government cannot leave all up to the state prosecutors.
PC called for Defense Minister, Lieutenant Carlos Luciano Díaz Morfa to take back his recent request to the Chamber of Deputies. In a letter, Díaz Morfa requested the Penal Code bill be modified to exclude the military and that these be judged by special military and courts and sent to military penal facilities. PC reminds the minister that the Constitutional Court ruled in 2019 that Dominican law does not contemplate military penal courts (No. TC/0350/19).
Read more in Spanish:
Participacion Ciudadana
Hoy
19 May 2021