Pedro Muñoz, from the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), responded on Wednesday to the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Fernando Cruz, and pointed out three complaints.
In an intervention in the Legislative Plenary, Muñoz mentioned alleged abuses of the magistrates of the Judiciary to benefit the Citizen Action Party (PAC) and accused Cruz of rewarding a judicial officer who did not deserve it.
Cruz asked Muñoz on Tuesday to criminally denounce a series of irregularities that the legislator has expressed in the media. However, the Social Christian preferred to make complaints in his space of political control in the Legislative Plenary.
The first refers to an agreement of the Court, dated August 11th, 2008, through which a salary plus or “managerial index” was approved for 46 of the highest positions of the Judiciary.
That incentive, he said, represented increases of 35% of the base salary for all magistrates (including those who approved the agreement) and more than 50% for other positions in the institution.
He indicated that in another agreement, of November 8, 2010, that bonus was added to the base salary of the same 46 positions, with the consequent budgetary impact, because in the Judiciary the salary components are quantified as percentages of the base salary. This led to the increase in bonuses, school salaries, severance and retirement of those who occupy the 46 positions.
He noted that on April 21st, 2017, 2 labor judges filed an unconstitutionality action against the 2 full Court agreements before the Fourth Chamber.
This situation is an incomprehensible absolute perversity within a rule of law,”
he said.
The second complaint made by Muñoz refers to the judicial sentence that condemned the former PAC messenger, Minor Sterling, and Manuel Antonio Bolaños, for defrauding the State through 263 special service contracts questioned to finance the electoral campaign of 2010.
But, according to his intervention, the top of the party was left off the hook, as stated by Gerardo Amadeo, Herbert Herra and Jeannete Román.
The third complaint he made was that on September 26th, Fernando Cruz used his double vote to approve the retirement of Berenice Smith, questioned in the case of the cementazo.
He said that in the Judiciary “there is a culture of inbreeding ” that comes from the Political Constitution and that has turned magistrates into life officials. In addition, he said that the institution is a disaster and that this is reflected in reports from the State of the Nation.