Both officials argued that they had tasks and activities they could not postpone. Representative Emilio Corea, from ARENA, reported that they have been called again, but if they do not come, they will be called urgently.
Amid the Assembly’s approval this Wednesday of a new law protecting the rights of the elderly, the directors of the Sara Zaldívar Asylum and the Salvadoran Institute for Comprehensive Rehabilitation (ISRI) did not respond to the deputies’ call to declare the death of more than 50 elderly people in that shelter
Both officials apologized for having activities within their institutions that they could not postpone. Both letters were received today by the special commission investigating the government’s response to the pandemic.
“With regard to Note No. 6371 dated January 25, 2021, where I have to attend an urgent work session on Wednesday, January 27 this year at 11:30 am; In this regard, I inform you that I have planned activities, which I could not postpone because of the haste with which I was called up. Because of the above, I will not be able to attend the session, ”said Claudia Susana Barahona de Melara, Director of the Sara Zaldívar Care Center.
The president of ISRI, Mayra Ligia Gallardo Alvarado, explained in her note that, “I have programmed a work schedule in the institution that I am chairing and this cannot be delegated.”
According to the report by the Attorney General for the Defense of Human Rights, the delegates wanted to know firsthand why more than 50 elderly people receiving care at Sara Zaldívar shelter died of COVID-19.
In this regard, the chair of the special committee and the deputy of ARENA, Emilio Corea, explained that they have apologized nine times for not going to the Health Committee, the Family Committee and other legislative working committees for which they have been called.
“We will call them again before 1pm Monday, February 1, if they don’t arrive, we will call them without pressure on February 3,” said Corea.