The senate issued a subpoena to Juan Francisco Benoit, Director of the Essential Medicines Program (PROMESE), who has charged that senators had taken bribes. Benoit went on the TV program ?Hoy Mismo? recently and stated that the proposed new law on social security would be beneficial to bankers. Accordingly, they have paid bribes to certain senators to vote in favor of the bill. The subpoena, which is answerable at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, requires Benoit to name the senators who have received bribes. PRD Senator Cesar Matias, who represents Valverde-Mao, called on President Hipolito Mejia to dismiss Benoit from his PROMESE post. Other senators expressed outrage at the accusations. In an unrelated measure, the Senate yesterday approved a bill to require the portrayal of patriotic symbols on the front and back covers of student notebooks. The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in July and will now be sent to the President. If approved, depictions of the national flag, the national crest, the lyrics of the National Anthem, or the biography of a national patriot, will replace the Pokemen and Disney characters, super-heroes, and entertainment figures that currently adorn most school notebooks.
