'There is nothing more democratic than what is happening today in the House': Rep. Garrido

The second vice president of the House, Lina María Garrido, spoke about the reasons why she decided not to sign the agenda to schedule the health reform. The representative also referred to the appointment of Armando Benedetti in the Ministry of the Interior and the work he will perform within Congress.

Indeed, as established by the fifth law, it is the duty of the board of directors, in which we form three representatives, to schedule the agenda. And in that sense, neither the first vice president nor I have agreed that the health reform be scheduled in these ordinary sessions until Minister Guillermo Jaramillo complies with the orders of the Constitutional Court. I believe that there is a rather complex issue here; there is a critical health situation in the country, it is in intensive care, and the mockery that Guillermo Jaramillo, the Minister of Health, is trying to make of the request already made by the Court, leads us, as one of the reasons, to not scheduling, to not discussing.

In addition to Minister Jaramillo's failure to comply with the Court's decisions, I have also taken legal action regarding the procedural flaws in the reform and, even more serious, we have already been waiting for three months for a response to a request for information on the fiscal impact and fiscal viability of this reform.

We have stated to the General Secretariat that the agendas in which the health reform was scheduled did not include our signature. This is to clarify, because sometimes it happens that, as is customary in the legislative process, the agendas are published without a proper analysis process as such and without including our signature. That is why I wanted to state and give clarity to the country about what my doubts are regarding the process, what actions I have undertaken and that, of course, this is a way of showing solidarity with the patients, with the medical personnel and with the hospitals of the country that are waiting for, I repeat, for the Minister of Health to comply with the orders of the Court.

The legal actions I have taken, including with some of the congressmen, include the first: a writ of protection that is currently being challenged against the president of the House, Jaime Raúl Salamanca, for the violation of due process in the legislative process. We consider, in accordance with a concept issued by the legislative coordinating unit of the House, that this should be processed as a statutory law and not an ordinary one. In the meantime, the processing of a statutory law requires prior constitutional control, that it goes through the First Commission and that it needs absolute majorities for its approval. That “little move” to avoid all these requirements, because they wanted to process it as an ordinary law.

At this moment, the protection is being challenged. Secondly, in the extraordinary call made by the National Government, there are a multiplicity of vices, of overstepping of functions and of nullity in the extraordinary sessions. We filed a protection because it turns out that Mr. Minister or the Ministry of the Interior, Gustavo García, not only planned, but signed the decree of assignment where they accepted Cristo's resignation and left him in charge, immediately summoning us to extraordinary sessions when he was not a minister.

There is an overstepping of functions. But in addition, we were notified via WhatsApp that these extraordinary sessions were not published in the Official Gazette and there we saw a manipulation, a bad conduct on the part of the Government , and that forced us to demand the annulment of this decree of extraordinary sessions, which if it is approved in favor, as we hope, the seven articles that were approved at that time in the discussion would fall. So, I think that there are many vices in the process of this reform that force us and call our attention so that the representatives and the House of Representatives, as a board of directors, have patience.

We are not Petro's employees, we are not a ministry, we are not the Executive, we are an autonomous and independent power that must be respected. And that is why I believe that the discussion should not be done in haste. On the contrary, we must give ourselves the necessary time so that we are aware of the fiscal impact, so that there is discussion, a guarantee for all the parties, because we are making a fool of ourselves in the eyes of the country. We are being the laughing stock of Colombia when what is approved in Congress due to the government's eagerness, is later declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court due to procedural flaws, publicity, lack of information and discussion. In other words, I believe that today's representatives have a commitment and a responsibility to the country because what is coming out of Congress is generating different decisions by the Constitutional Court, and I believe that should call our attention.

None, zero. Neither the Ministry of Finance, with whom we submitted this together with Jorge Tovar on December 2nd of last year, nor much less the Minister of Health, has told the Congress of the Republic how much this reform costs or what the sources of financing are. That is very serious if we are telling the country, creating a fire and calling for marches when we do not have clarity about what the reform is that they are presenting to Colombians and where it will be paid for . The government has already taken as a national sport to blame everyone: Congress, the Courts, the ministers themselves, for their inability to give clear answers, to execute, to resolve. We are on the verge of a social explosion due to Gustavo Petro's lies.

Precisely because of that, because the Government, which is the first to have six EPS intervened today, which has control over the majority of the patients in the country, patients are dying at the hospital doors. They are not accessing specialists, they are not accessing medicines, they are not accessing their appointments, their treatments. Look at what is happening with the health of teachers. The State, the government, cannot come and tell us that this reform is the solution when first they do not process it as it should be. Second, they do not even know how much it costs, but they do want to continue with their lies telling people that today patients are dying because Congress does not pass the health reform. That is totally false. If they want to blame me for that, because the reform fails, then I accept that judgment because really here things cannot continue to be done badly. Here you cannot continue telling lies to people.

The Government has control over health today. The Government has control over the money. It has not even wanted to pay because the Court told it that it had to make adjustments to the UPC and the maximum budgets. In other words, it is cruelty personified in Minister Jaramillo, who does not care about anything. He challenged the magistrate who dared to say that, even with EPS, they could not even access medicines for an appointment and he challenged him because he does not have an objective view of reality. In other words, all of us who have felt violated do not have the objective view to say that what the government is promoting is not going anywhere.

We are the ones who are seeing how the number of lawsuits has increased, how the demand for medicines is increasing without a solution. What we can say is that what the Government is showing is a total fallacy. What the Government is showing is not an enrichment for the EPSs and that those of us who defend the negative vote for this reform are allies of the EPSs. This money is not for the EPSs. Here we are talking about solutions, and the Government, even though it is in charge of the entire sector, is really letting patients die. The national government is killing Colombian patients today because they are not allowed to access medicines and appointments.

There is nothing more democratic than what is happening today in the House of Representatives. There is a board of directors that fulfills legal functions under the fifth law. There are two vice presidents of the three who make up the board, who are against the fact that the reform should be discussed until the Government responds, until the Government complies with the law. But what has been confirmed here is that Petro does not like to comply with the law, that Petro blames everyone, that Petro washes his hands of his own ministers to get around his inability to tell him that all the magic formulas that he said he had ready for twenty years to lead this country are a complete lie. Gustavo Petro lies to Colombians every day. He is not capable of recognizing that he has been incapable, that he lacks leadership, that he is waiting to be the intergalactic leader when his house has turned into nothing, an absolute chaos. So, let him not try to profile me, or subject me to public ridicule, or threaten me because I do not make the decision to schedule the health reform.

I have been threatened by armed groups in my department, friends of Gustavo Petro, and it is not with threats or profiling that they are going to force me to attend to or capriciously schedule the health reform. He should rather respond to the country for the shame that we women feel, that a man like Armando Benedetti is today the Minister of the Interior with the only justification of being the person capable of doing the dirty work so that the reforms are approved in the Congress of the Republic. With me, the president and his threats do not work. The social explosion that he wants to cause for the country today, that is only the responsibility of the chaos that he himself has created, that he wanted to govern and today is incapable of giving solutions to the people. He should respect, because if there is a vice president in the House of Representatives it is to respect and dignify the work that we do as an independent power. I am neither his employee nor his minister for him to come here to tell me when and how my decisions are in Congress.

I have told my colleagues, I have told the congressmen, be very careful with Armando Benedetti, who, although he has today subdued, humiliated and threatened the President of the Republic, so much so that he has given him five positions in this government, because one day he came out threatening to say where fifteen billion pesos came from, where the votes came from so that Gustavo Petro would be president. Imagine what he can do in a hurry to get the reforms out of the Congress of the Republic. Imagine the blackmail, how he wants to negotiate the votes. I have told my colleagues, watch out, they are going to record you, watch out, because you have noticed how ministries, with that face of fools that they sometimes have like Mr. Taxes, look what he has done today profiling them, listing them, denouncing them.

I think that this is an erratic, terrible and immoral message, what the government is trying to do by appointing a man like Armando Benedetti with seven investigations in the Court, to come and save its reforms by means of bureaucracy and clientelism in Congress. I hope that there is responsibility and I thank my colleagues in the House of Representatives who yesterday, with the negative vote on the proposal of the historic pact, gave us a boost. Because here what we are asking for is, first, security, guarantees and resources for health in the country, and third, that there be dignity and respect for the House of Representatives.

Our position with Jorge Tovar is unanimous. Minister Guillermo Jaramillo, who likes to make fun of the representatives when they challenge him and question him, should comply with what the Constitutional Court says in its two rulings. When he does so, we have committed ourselves to schedule the health reform, but in the meantime, no. And I am totally sure that neither the tricks, nor the subterfuge, nor what Armando Benedetti intends to do will tarnish the credibility and dignity that the board of directors has today, which those of us who have opposed like Jorge Tovar and Lina María Garrido have. I hope that the House of Representatives understands our position, which is for the dignity of the patients in Colombia and for the dignity of the House of Representatives.

We, out of respect for the women of the country, out of respect for the dignity that we represent, will not have any kind of dialogue with Armando Benedetti. It insults us to have to accept that he is the Minister of the Interior. I am sending a message to the President of the House of Representatives, Jaime Raúl Salamanca. I hope that they respect my position and my seat at the board of directors. I will not accept that Mr. Armando Benedetti sits at the board of directors. Unfortunately, I cannot prevent him from entering the House of Representatives, but I can allow him to do so where the ministers sit.

Maria Alejandra Gonzalez Duarte