“Colleague David, we pray to the Lord that you may dwell with Him, for we have heard that there is a paradise, now what we beg and hope is that there is no place in it for lenders, usurers, vain and lying officials, because they believe they are the best, traffickers of influence, of dreams, they have come to believe that they own the money they administer from the people, preaching charity and disguised as lambs as they grow their fortune,” they explain in the statement.
SANTO DOMINGO.- On the seventh anniversary of the death of architect David Rodríguez García, the CIC, the Codiano Institutional Committee, appealed to the sensitivity of civil society organizations to support them, given the Government's refusal to "honor the payment" of the debt to 107 contracting engineers, which dates back to 1996.
Rodríguez García was the contractor who committed suicide in September 2015 in a bathroom of the then State Works Supervisory Office (OISOE), and who had won a lottery for the remodeling of the Francisco del Rosario Sánchez basic school in Peralvillo, Monte Plata, where he was from and contracted external debts with private individuals for about six million pesos, whose commitments generated such concern that he decided to take his own life.
“On the 7th anniversary of the death of architect David Rodríguez García, who symbolizes the sacrifice to which the engineering profession of the Dominican Republic has been subjected. Clearly, his death must be attributed to the corruption and irresponsibility of the last PLD (Dominican Liberation Party) members, who contracted projects without sufficient funds, forcing engineering and architecture professionals to finance them themselves or resort to suicide, as has happened in the country over the last 26 years,” reads the press release, which was read during a mass held yesterday in his memory at the Dominican Church.
The document states that dozens of construction professionals chose to take their own lives, or have met their death as a result of the stress to which they were subjected by these administrations, a situation that has led and has left all the survivors bankrupt.
“David, since your tragic decision, which we commemorate seven years ago today, we who remember you today have formed the Codiano CIC Institutional Committee to fight in defense of the interests of engineering professionals, those without prestigious surnames, the unprivileged, the ordinary ones; so that cases like yours do not happen again,” they stated.
They appealed to the most sensitive part of Dominican society, such as churches and the media, regarding the imminent situation that could unfold in our country, given the insensitivity, injustice, and refusal of the government and its officials to honor the debt payment to the contracting engineers.
They said they felt cheated and that the officials of the current government "have become bourgeois and drunk with power, forgetting that governments are not eternal.".
“Colleague David, we pray to the Lord that you may dwell with Him, for we have heard that there is a paradise, now what we beg and hope is that there is no place in it for lenders, usurers, vain and lying officials, because they believe they are the best, traffickers of influence, of dreams, they have come to believe that they own the money they administer from the people, preaching charity and disguised as lambs as they grow their fortune,” they explain in the statement.
They requested that President Luis Abinader Corona order his officials to develop a sensible plan to include in the national budget the payment of debts owed by these 12 Dominican State institutions to approximately 107 construction professionals.
The outstanding balance to date is approximately RD$385 million, resulting from work and projects put into service in different communities throughout the country, and the sum is held by the Debt Recognition Directorate of the Ministry of Finance, the plaintiffs explain.
“Mr. President, we have waited two years for your campaign promise to be fulfilled. We have lost nine of our colleagues because of this inconsistency. We want to be paid while we are still alive.”.
About the CIC
The Codiano Institutional Committee (CIC) is an organization that has been created to fight in defense of the interests of engineering professionals.
It is made up of Emiliano Familia, Aníbal Rincón, Nelson Núñez, Ovidio Rosario, Félix Miceli, Samuel Peña, Pedro Troncoso, Ana Cristina de los Santos, Elias Pérez, Manuel Reyes, Buenaventura García, Dominica Mojica, Isis Pérez, José Torres, Julio César Nin, Ricardo Mariñez, Anny Nadal, Diógenes Zapata and Martha Aponte.
