Prominent figures rebuke civic group’s willingness to join opposition party row

Santo Domingo.- A senior government official and a prominent Op-Ed columnists on Friday separately rebuked the willingness of the civic group Citizen Participation (PC) to mediate in the moths-long standoff within the opposition PRD party

Presidency Adviser on narcotics Marino Vinicio Castillo (Vincho) said PC should change its name to "Hipolito’s Citizen Participation" because in his view, it had supported the PRD in the May 20 presidential election. "They supported Hipolito all the time, until the very night bingo was called."

The official, who’s also the head of the minority FNP party, said PC looks to mediate in the PRD to annul the Superior Electoral Court’s (TSE) ruling which again upheld Miguel Vargas’s tenure as that party’s President.

He said monsignor Agripino Nuñez, also cited as a possible mediator, should do whatever he sees fit regarding his potential role in the PRD standoff.

"Monsignor do what you feel, I’ve nothing to say about that," said at the National Altar, where the FNP’s leaders marked its 32nd anniversary at.

For Listin newspaper senior Op-Ed writer Oralndo Gil, the PC’s effort is “opportunism” and cautioned Nuñez against taking part in a confrontation in which “everyone comes out soiled.”

“Look at the light attitude of it all, it could be Monseñor Nuñez, but also PC. as if the investiture didn’t matter, and as if the majesty of the Church is same as the opportunism of civil society,” Gil said in his daily column.