2024-07-14 00:32:51
President Gustavo Petro referred again to the pension reform that was approved in an apparently irregular manner in the House of Representatives. On his X account (formerly Twitter) he announced that on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at 2:00 pm, a public event will be held in the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá to promote the right of senior citizens to have a pension and live their old age with dignity.
In order to defend the pension, the head of State asserted that the idea of competition between people for the sake of capital accumulation has been perpetuated. However, he indicated that this premise is wrong and that it is necessary to opt for solidarity.
“We have been badly taught, by decades of neoliberalism and powerful communication of Capital, that we should not look at others! That triumph is a competition of solitary egos. But it is false. We would not exist on the planet today, if it were not because we are in solidarity. We love. This July 16, Plaza de Bolívar, 2 pm. The right of grandparents to retire, and live with dignity,” wrote the president in X.
In June, the president had already announced that he would sign the pension reform into law on July 16, taking into account that the controversial proposal was approved in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
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Although the president summoned the citizens at 2:00 p.m. The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications of Colombia reported that the pension reform will be sanctioned at 10:00 a.m. “This achievement of the people will dignify the lives of the country’s senior citizens and we want to celebrate it together,” the ministry said.
However, the idea of passing the law has generated rejection among the opposition, because they consider that the initiative was not debated. On June 14, 2024, the House of Representatives decided to accept the text of the reform that was approved by the Senate. After a proposal in this regard had the approval of 86 representatives. This took several congressmen by surprise, who denounced a violation of the principles of publicity and deliberation, so they indicated that they would go to the Constitutional Court to investigate the procedure and overturn the initiative.
“It is not normal that a proposal like this came here, out of nowhere, to accept the Senate text and already have complete consensus out of nowhere. Renouncing debate, renouncing participation, renouncing deliberation to which we, the opposition, have every right,” said Representative Adriana Carolina Arbeláez Giraldo during the session in which the project was approved.
Despite the criticism, congressmen and members of Gustavo Petro’s cabinet have defended the initiative and the way it was passed in Congress. In fact, the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez Ríos, highlighted the agreements that were reached in order to draft the text. She indicated that more than seven technical meetings were held to regulate 42 articles of the reform. Of the 25, they correspond to financial issues and the rest to the way in which the transition to the new pension system will be carried out.
“We will issue a single regulatory decree so that each of you can clear up your doubts and get rid of your uncertainties. We have also worked hard on the process of technicalization of restraints, we are already in the first pilot of the process of your work histories. And, of course, July 16 will be the big day, it will be the moment when the President of the Republic sanctions this law, of which we are all part. Without you it would not have been possible. We are waiting for you,” said the head of the portfolio.
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