Debate on institutionalism and laws grabs the country's attention.
Experts say that the observation of the TC law erodes democracy
Diario Libre
SANTO DOMINGO.- Experts in Constitutional Law and organizations of the civil society warned the Congress on the negative precedent for institutionalism that the approval of the observations made by President Leonel Fernandez to the Organic Law of the Constitutional Tribunal by a simple majority would represent for the country.
Servio Tulio Castaños Guzman, the executive vice-president of the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation I(Finjus), Cristobal Rodriguez, Jose Alejandro Ayuso and the Latin American Social Science Faculty (Flacso) referred to the issue.
Castaños Guzman maintained that if they intended to approve the observations made by President Fernandez to the Organic Law of the Constitutional Tribunal with a simple majority, "evidently we would be in an unconstitutional situation".
Rodriguez qualified the intention of the Congress to approve organic laws with a simple majority as "the most disturbing and the most serious of all the outrages that have been committed in the process of implementing the new Constitution", because it deepens the erosion of the institutional system and because it deteriorates the quality of the country's democracy.
On the program, "El Bulevar", he said that from the presidency of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies "they have pretended to tell the population that the Constitution says something that it does not say".
The Flacso director, Cesar Cuello, said yesterday that if they continue approving laws that are so important without the respect of the Constitution, there should be a reaction of society to call for legitimacy.
"The reaction has to happen and the media has to come out and say it and the civilian, political organizations that are not compromised with this style of management", the director of Flacso, Cesar Cuello told Diario Libre.
He declared that, if they continue to approve laws without the established parameters, the legislators will lose their credibility and the very law that was observed will come with the seal of illegal illegitimacy.
"If they start there, they are running over their own Constitution, and this is not acceptable. In a society that seeks institutionalism, that wants to convert itself into a state of law, and if those that are in charge of legislation and of enforcing the law are the first ones to break it, then, were are we headed?", said Cuello.
In the meantime Ayuso suggested that in order to re-establish constitutional law and order the ideal thing would be to correct themselves and respect the special majority (two-thirds), whether to approve or reject the observations made by the President of the Republic to the legislation.
Government denies observation is a threat
For his part, the government spokesman rejected the position of the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP), in the sense that the observation made by President Leonel Fernandez constitutes a threat to the constitutional order of things.
The Minister of the Presidency, Cesar Pina Toribio, said that what does constitute a denial of the constitutional and institutional order, is to want to impede the President from exercising an action that the very Constitution gives him the power to do exclusively and as a form of exercising the necessary counterbalance between the other powers.
"The observation of the laws approved by the Congress before they are promulgated and published is a right that the Constitution gives to the Executive Power, in articles 102 and 103 of the Constitution of the Republic and no other power nor any other institution or person can limit this power", said Pina Toribio.
The official explained that the Constitution approved in 2010 was careful in regulating the right to observe by the Executive Power, establishing the obligation to indicate the articles that were the object of the observation and indicating the reasons that substantiated the observations.
It was not presented because of a lack of a quorum
Yesterday afternoon, the Senate could not debate the observations made by the Executive Power to the Organic Law of the Tribunal, since Senator Prim Pujals broke the scarce quorum that met to discuss this and other legislative initiatives. There were only 17 senators present, seven presented excuses. After Pujals left the session, he was followed by Jose Maria Sosa, Manuel Antonio Paula, Aristedes Victoria Yeb and Adriano Sanchez Roa. It so happened that these legislators left the Senate chamber to attend the inauguration of the overpass on the Charles De Gaulle Avenue that was going to be headed by President Leonel Fernandez. Still on the table as well were the reports on the bond emissions for RD$25 billion and the other one for US$500 million to be used to pay the public debts.
Servio Tulio Castaños Guzman, the executive vice-president of the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation I(Finjus), Cristobal Rodriguez, Jose Alejandro Ayuso and the Latin American Social Science Faculty (Flacso) referred to the issue.
Castaños Guzman maintained that if they intended to approve the observations made by President Fernandez to the Organic Law of the Constitutional Tribunal with a simple majority, "evidently we would be in an unconstitutional situation".
Rodriguez qualified the intention of the Congress to approve organic laws with a simple majority as "the most disturbing and the most serious of all the outrages that have been committed in the process of implementing the new Constitution", because it deepens the erosion of the institutional system and because it deteriorates the quality of the country's democracy.
On the program, "El Bulevar", he said that from the presidency of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies "they have pretended to tell the population that the Constitution says something that it does not say".
The Flacso director, Cesar Cuello, said yesterday that if they continue approving laws that are so important without the respect of the Constitution, there should be a reaction of society to call for legitimacy.
"The reaction has to happen and the media has to come out and say it and the civilian, political organizations that are not compromised with this style of management", the director of Flacso, Cesar Cuello told Diario Libre.
He declared that, if they continue to approve laws without the established parameters, the legislators will lose their credibility and the very law that was observed will come with the seal of illegal illegitimacy.
"If they start there, they are running over their own Constitution, and this is not acceptable. In a society that seeks institutionalism, that wants to convert itself into a state of law, and if those that are in charge of legislation and of enforcing the law are the first ones to break it, then, were are we headed?", said Cuello.
In the meantime Ayuso suggested that in order to re-establish constitutional law and order the ideal thing would be to correct themselves and respect the special majority (two-thirds), whether to approve or reject the observations made by the President of the Republic to the legislation.
Government denies observation is a threat
For his part, the government spokesman rejected the position of the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP), in the sense that the observation made by President Leonel Fernandez constitutes a threat to the constitutional order of things.
The Minister of the Presidency, Cesar Pina Toribio, said that what does constitute a denial of the constitutional and institutional order, is to want to impede the President from exercising an action that the very Constitution gives him the power to do exclusively and as a form of exercising the necessary counterbalance between the other powers.
"The observation of the laws approved by the Congress before they are promulgated and published is a right that the Constitution gives to the Executive Power, in articles 102 and 103 of the Constitution of the Republic and no other power nor any other institution or person can limit this power", said Pina Toribio.
The official explained that the Constitution approved in 2010 was careful in regulating the right to observe by the Executive Power, establishing the obligation to indicate the articles that were the object of the observation and indicating the reasons that substantiated the observations.
It was not presented because of a lack of a quorum
Yesterday afternoon, the Senate could not debate the observations made by the Executive Power to the Organic Law of the Tribunal, since Senator Prim Pujals broke the scarce quorum that met to discuss this and other legislative initiatives. There were only 17 senators present, seven presented excuses. After Pujals left the session, he was followed by Jose Maria Sosa, Manuel Antonio Paula, Aristedes Victoria Yeb and Adriano Sanchez Roa. It so happened that these legislators left the Senate chamber to attend the inauguration of the overpass on the Charles De Gaulle Avenue that was going to be headed by President Leonel Fernandez. Still on the table as well were the reports on the bond emissions for RD$25 billion and the other one for US$500 million to be used to pay the public debts.
Diario Libre
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