The Attorney General of the Republic, Miriam Germán Brito issued a message on the Day of the Judiciary in which he strengthens the legal thinking of the patrician Juan Pablo Duarte to emphasize the administration of justice that punishes administrative corruption.
Germán Brito urges judges and prosecutors to follow Duarte’s example in punishing officials who separate taxpayers from their wealth.
“Duarte’s careful handling has planted since the dawn of our republican life the rejection of the practice of administrative corruption. It is now up to us, judges and prosecutors, to follow their example and respond to that aspiration of the Dominican people to see all those responsible for provoking, in many cases, a brutal dispossession of the assets of taxpayers prosecuted and punished when they were played performs functions in public administration ”says the magistrate
Here is a complete reproduction of Miriam Germán ‘s message:.
On this date, the Day of the Judiciary is celebrated. A power that is needed to be seen as a tool to achieve a life of respect and guarantee of rights for all citizens.
When we talk about justice, about justice, we cannot ignore the figure of Juan Pablo Duarte.
Like all historical figures, Duarte does not escape controversy and does not claim to judge, with current parameters, the performances performed during the time he was given.
The fact that Duarte entrusted his goods to the liberating cause is praised in school, seeing it as an expression of something almost mystical, when the most accurate vision is that, in that fact, it reveals to what extent that man believed in the noble cause. our independence.
Don Pedro Mir, referring to Duarte, correctly emphasizes the role played in his formation by the ideas under whose influence he was exposed in the United States and, above all, in troubled Europe since 1830, coming into contact with Rousseau’s thought, with constitutionalism budding; he was amazed by the forums of Catalonia and the political effervescence of Barcelona at the time, where anarchism flourished with its long-standing concern for human freedom.
What was innovative about the Constitution of 1812 in Cadiz also had a place in his thinking.
He has the merit of pleading for the constitutional supremacy contained in Article 6 of his draft law. Duarte did not conceive of the Constitution as the “piece of paper” so praised by La Salle and repeated by a former president of our country; He thought of it as something endowed with life and power to be internalized by people as a standard of conduct.
In his project, Duarte tried the value of Justice, but did not exhaust it in the conception of a public service. He goes on, sees it as something to integrate into daily behavior, putting it as a condition for happiness … “Be fair (…) if you want to be happy.”
He has the vision to plead for the municipal power, intuiting that the municipality as an entity closest to the daily life of the citizens is a space for the exercise of democracy.
Now we have international courts, we are talking about genocide, crimes against humanity, but Duarte, who being our Chronological Founding Father was closer to adolescence than old age, established in his project the notion of the indescribable crimes against humanity in his native country.
In Article 11 of the draft Duartian Constitution, that bright man’s concern for what we now call the Right Process is reflected when he says: “No one can be tried except in accordance with the law in force before the crime and cannot in no case be any punishment other than that established by law and in the manner prescribed by them ”; thus leaving the transition to criminal proceedings that could ultimately be implemented without substance against those who question power.
In relation to the legal thinking of Juan Pablo Duarte, we can conclude that, in addition to the constitutional supremacy, its two connecting bars are: a) the legitimacy necessary for the exercise of power and b) draw precise limits for the exercise of this power.
He emphasizes that, in his time, it should have been a stone of scandal because it was subversive and is the non-existence for the citizen of the duty to listen to an illegitimate authority, the duty to listen has the precondition of legitimacy, a notion that reappears in the Constitution . since 1963.
With a Duarte who was the man who had the bright stubbornness to insist on believing in a project of a free, independent and sovereign nation; When almost all the signs told him no, he listened, maybe he dreamed that this people told him “it’s time, dare” and he dared, he went far in his faith, even sketching his project of nation, the sketch of a body this would guarantee a society that pursues an ideal of justice, freedom and happiness, which will never accept the transfer of a meter from its territory or an iota of its sovereignty, nor would it agree to any form of corruption, as it confesses. his responsibility.
Duarte’s careful manipulation has led to the rejection of the practice of administrative corruption since the dawn of our republican life. It is now up to us, judges and prosecutors, to follow their example and respond to that aspiration of the Dominican people to see all those responsible for provoking, in many cases, a brutal dispossession of the assets of taxpayers prosecuted and punished when hats perform functions in public administration.
If Duarte demonstrated his stature that transcends time, it was in his effort to emphasize that sovereignty is in the people, denying any possibility of renouncing an iota, either by alienating territories or by placing powers in the hands of those which does not. They received it from the desire of the sovereign who continues and will continue to be the people, even if in bitter times they find the dust of temporary defeats.
The Duartiano project conceived the legal order as an instrument to guarantee the growth of a society in freedom, in harmony and continues to be a valid instrument, perhaps even more so now, in the realm of the harsh logic of profit, a time when a sarcastic humorist obviously puts one of his characters to express “to calm the markets, we made people anxious.”
Believing that Duarte in our possibility of a truly sovereign nation, bet without sectarianism for the unity of those who share progressive values, calls them to recognize themselves in him, to assume the dream of their homeland, to love him in the stubborn clarity of their thought when to say and about making a homeland was discussed.