Opposition lists Dominican Republic leader’s corruption scandals

Santo Domingo.- Opposition PRM party campaign chief RobertoFulcar on Tuesday read a long list of alleged acts of corruption by officialsof president Danilo Medina’s administration, and said their talk of an alleged dirtycampaign resulted from “seeing their own reflection in the mirror.”

Fulcar’s accusation comes after Medina’s campaign chief andTourism minister Francisco Javier Garcia on Monday affirmed that PRM party presidentialcandidate Luis Abinader is preparing a dirty campaign and accusations ofcorruption against him and cabinet ministers Ramon Peralta and Jose RamonFadul.

In a press conference at Abinader campaign headquarters,Fulcar mentioned the suicide of architect David Rodriguez, which uncovered thecorruption scandal at the State Supervisory Engineers Office –OISOE- whose directorMiguel Pimentel Kareh was fired by Medina shortly after, but not charged.

He also cited other major scandals including ballooned coststo remodel the Dario Contreras hospital, the “clandestine” road for RD$1.2 billionwithout environmental impact study or tender, Medina advisor Joao Santana, now beingheld in Brazil on money laundering charges, and the “70%” of government officialswho’ve yet to submit their financial statement despite their 3½ years in theirposts.

Fulcar also asked if the ballooned cost in the contract tobuild the Punta Catalina coal-fired plants is a dirty campaign

Aren’t those the types of officials that Medina has toaccuse of corrupt?" Fulcar asked, and sarcastically said “No juegues,Magino! (Don’t kid me dude!), as Professor Juan Bosch said."

He also accused Medina’s officials of using convicted drug traffickerQuirino Paulino to tarnish the image of Leonel Fernandez, “the president of theirown party. “Isn’t that an expression of a dirty campaign to disqualify their hopefulsfor the PLD presidential candidacy?”