Most of today?s papers give prominent coverage to the Catholic Church’s reaction to Tuesday’s pronouncements of Jesus F?liz Jim?nez, Director of the Department for the Prevention of Corruption (DEPRECO), who accused the Catholic hierarchy of fostering corruption. In an official communiqu?, the Church says that it is not F?liz’s job to make what they called ?unfounded, inconsiderate and indiscriminate? accusations. In a personal statement on the matter, Monse?or Agripino N??ez Collado, the Rector of PUCMM university, challenged F?liz to supply concrete examples of any church officials who encourage corruption. List?n Diario?s analyst Lito Santana outlines the labor of DEPRECO, describing the organization as having failed completely in most of its cases, despite strong public support for real anti-corruption measures. Santana concludes that F?liz?s statement, which has been met by overwhelming condemnation from all quarters, including some of his fellow party-members, is the latest in a series of gaffes. F?liz had also cited some elements of the media as being complicit in government corruption.
In a separate reaction to the announcement that DEPRECO would be making new corruption charges against officials who served in the previous PLD government, former President Leonel Fern?ndez accused DEPRECO of seeking to discredit the PLD in order to undermine their presidential aspirations. Leonel also implied that DEPRECO was part of a PPH plot to interfere in the upcoming PLD primary elections. PPH is the Plan Presidencial Hip?lito, an internal PRD re-election campaign accused of manipulating the recent PRSC primary elections.