Armando Benedetti announces that the government will summon representatives to the Chamber to discuss pension reform.
Interior Minister Armando Benedetti stated that the government is already working on the decree calling for extraordinary sessions so that the House of Representatives can conclude the fourth and final debate on pension reform , as ordered by the Constitutional Court.
"It's important that the pension reform hasn't been scuttled, that it has been sent back to the House for further discussion and debate. Extraordinary sessions will be convened in the House for discussion and debate, because the reform is due to go into effect on July 1st," the head of the political portfolio told the media.
Pension reform approved in Plaza de Bolívar in July 2024. Photo: Presidency
That is, the Government will convene the House of Representatives to complete the pension reform process, which, in its fourth debate, decided to adopt the text previously approved by the Senate.
Once the debate takes place in the House, if the text is approved, the Senate must also be convened to conduct reconciliation.
What President Gustavo Petro said about the Constitutional Court's decision on pension reform President Gustavo Petro, for his part, also praised the high court's decision.
Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia. Photo: Presidency
"The pension reform has been saved. I ask the House of Representatives to thoroughly discuss the article that approves the Senate's text and pass it. The House has stood up for the social reforms of the government and the people, and the Senate, with a slim majority, is beginning to react in favor," the head of state asserted.
It was President Gustavo Petro himself who instructed the House, where he has held the majority, to accept the Senate's text to avoid a possible dismissal during conciliation proceedings in that body.
"In Name, the government had its greatest opponent, elected by the opposition. He was someone who was able to keep the pension reform on his desk for 13 months; the only major reform we managed to pass, and for which we had to avoid the conciliation process under his presidency," the head of state asserted regarding the former speaker of Congress, currently detained in Bogotá's La Picota prison for his alleged involvement in the corruption scheme at the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).
Iván Name, Gustavo Petro, and Andrés Calle at the inauguration of Congress on July 20, 2024. Photo: César Melgarejo. EL TIEMPO
Name is accused of allegedly receiving three billion pesos in cash to facilitate the implementation of social reforms.
Other reactions to the Court's decision Several voices have spoken out against the Constitutional Court's decision not to overturn the pension reform and instead send it back to Congress to correct the procedural flaws.
Former Senator Humberto de la Calle asserted that this was a correct decision: "I have been informed that the Constitutional Court ordered the pension bill to be returned to the Chamber to correct the procedural flaws. Applause. A decision that is in accordance with the law and very sensible. I note that I voted in favor of the Senate's text."
The Senate approved the Petro administration's pension reform in its first two debates. Photo: Twitter: @MintrabajoCol
Representative Heráclito Landinez of the Historic Pact also highlighted this fact. "The Constitutional Court's decision to return the bill to the plenary session is good news because it was returned due to a legislative procedural flaw that will be corrected in the debates in the coming days. The most important thing is that the content of the reform is maintained."
eltiempo
