The Senate has until 15 August 2021 to pass the amended Penal Code as received from the Chamber of Deputies. If the bill is not passed as received, then it will expire and will need to be resubmitted to both houses. The bill has been under discussion for over 20 years in Congress.
During the La Cuestion radio talk show on 5 August, Patricia Solano and guest host Huchi Lora blasted government politicians for what they described as regrouping to ensure the fast-tracked passing of the Penal Code to ensure impunity for corrupt acts in government is maintained. The news commentators see a deliberate scheme in the desire of a majority of legislators to quickly pass the amendments to the Penal Code. Several senators advocate that the bill be fast-tracked without deliberate reading and passed as received from the Chamber of Deputies.
Alfredo Pacheco (PRM-National District) is the president of the Chamber of Deputies. On day one of the change of mandate from a majority of the Dominican Liberation Party to one of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) in Congress, Pacheco said passing the Penal Code was his priority. The revised Chamber of Deputies Penal Code has been called the Pacheco Code.
Speaking on La Cuestion, Solano dedicated the second half of the noon talk show to explain that all is not what it seems to be with the Penal Code. She explained that the many “errors” in the Penal Code and the urgency in its passing is so that the Penal Code may legalize impunity. “There is this political class that seeks to pass a curtain of impunity for the political class,” she said.
Solano highlights the revised bill reincorporates military courts to hear military crimes and practically eliminates judging political parties for corruption.
Solano remarked that the people have changed, but the politicians are unaware of this because it will mean that past and present administrative corruption be penalized. “But the political class did not change, there is a resistance for the decency that the people demanded at the Plaza de la Bandera,” she blasted on the radio talk show.
President Luis Abinader and the PRM reached power with the promise of prosecuting administrative corruption. From day one, President Abinader appointed the prestigious former Supreme Court of Justice Penal Chamber judge Miriam German to be the Attorney General, and former National District prosecutors Yeni Berenice Reynoso and Wilson Camacho who have been preparing strong corruption cases that have even included officers in the Abinader government. These persons are seen an independent and have been hard at work preparing cases of corruption.
The professionalism of the new prosecutors has motivated the politicians to act to protect their own. Solano is of the belief that PRM politicians seek to impede the prosecutors from doing their jobs. To this end, she says they have sought a perfect alliance with the churches. She points out that the Catholic Church, weakened by charges of pedophiles in its ranks, has revved its followers with the unifying theme of zero abortion and zero LBGT. In exchange, the politicians garner their support to pass the code they want. Solano insists the code they want shields the politicians from being prosecuted.
Solano says: “We just changed government last year. The corrupt would be the PLD. But now the majority in all the parties are defending the shielding of the politicians. They have ganged together,” she complains.
On the 5 August radio talk show, veteran news analyst Huchi Lora described recent actions as a play to focus attention on abortion and LBGT issues when the real intention is to entertain and divide to ensure the politicians are shielded from prosecution with the passing of an ambiguous and contradictory Penal Code – the Pacheco Code. Lora is sitting in for his daughter, news analyst Diana Lora who is on vacation.
Lora says there are many in Congress concerned that the prosecutors are investigating corruption. “They are creating an unfunctional Penal Code so that corruption cannot be punished,” says Lora.
He points out that everyone knows the two senators (Tommy Galan and Andres Bautista) of the six persons tried for the US$92 million Odebrecht bribes case are not the only legislators involved in the Odebrecht case with its billions in overvaluations authorized the government in cohoots with the legislators. Lora says that Punta Catalina’s case has never gone to court, leaving the doors open for the new authorities to investigate and prosecute. He highlights there are still people active as legislators that can be taken to trial. He explains this is why the legislators are making sure the Penal Code accommodates their interests. In Spanish, the saying is “soaking the beard in water.”
“The Chamber of Deputies took the care to instate the mines in the Code to explode it,” he said. The bill was also fast-tracked in the Chamber of Deputies. Opposition deputy Jose Horacio Rodriguez says many clauses were added that were not approved by the committee that studied the bill.
Litigation lawyer Laura Acosta says the new code as presented for approval to the Senate will be impossible to work with due to its ambiguities and duplicities.
During the radio talk show, Lora and Solano shared the audio clip where the president of the Senate, Eduardo Estrella (Dominicanos por el Cambio), says the Senate needs to do its job. “We have to take our time. The Penal Code has to be enriched. The Chamber of Deputies did their work and we at the Senate need to do ours. That is why there are two chambers. We have to get accustomed to the two chambers working separately,” says Estrella. But a majority of the senators wants the bill fast-tracked. The majority could decide not to elect Estrella to preside the Senate for the new working period that opens on 16 August 2021. The president of the Senate sets the agenda of the day.
Solano says the push for a quick passing of the Penal Code as received from the Chamber of Deputies is but “a manifesto of hustlers.”
On the radio talk program, Lora and Solano interviewed veteran journalist Gustavo Olivo. Olivo concurred the intent is “to kill two birds with one shot.” He says the Penal Code is one of exclusion and legalizing discrimination. On the other hand, what is most serious is the twisting of the clauses to give the green light to those who want impunity from corruption. He explained that all the ambiguities and contradictions will facilitate cases collapsing in court and people being discharged despite serious faults. He points to Ramon Rogelio Genao of the PRSC-La Vega, a PRM ally, as one of the leaders of the tricksters in Congress. “We are back to where we were, with tricks, group negotiations. Olivo sees little of the promises of change the ruling government campaigned on to be elected. We see the same dark political negotiations in place, nothing of transparency, he argued.
“Everything is being directed at leaving the state prosecutors without the tools to prosecute corruption, despite the promise of impunity,” he stressed. He called for the population to be alert.
Olivo says it is an error of the political echelons of the PRM to not take a stand on what is happening. He said that people will then say that all politicians are the same. The PRM reached the government with the vote of independents who voted against the past government’s widespread corruption. Olivo says the government stands to lose.
Lora concurs that the today President reached the Presidency with the support of hundreds of thousands that bought his promise of independent justice and putting an end to impunity. The government named an excellent prosecution team. In response, legislators have decided to prepare new rules of the game where the political parties cannot be tried for taking drug trafficking money, ambiguities and the military will be tried in special courts with their colleagues. Lora says these are actions intended to leave the prosecutors without tools so they cannot act and meet the commitment of the President of ending impunity.
He highlights the urgency of passing the Penal Code contrasts with the turtle pace for the passing of the Extinction of Domain Bill that would facilitate ordering the forfeiture of illicitly obtained assets.
There is much speculation whether the legislators will get away with it. How will President Luis Abinader handle this new challenge? The popular Poteleche cartoon in Diario Libre on 5 August 2021 captures the concerns of the population: “You promised change and the Penal Code is the same,” say citizens. President Abinader responds: “That is the change. I changed my mind.”
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La Cuestion – Minute 28
6 August 2021