The two officials argued that they had tasks and activities that they cannot postpone. Deputy Emilio Corea, from ARENA, reported that they were summoned again, but if they do not arrive, they will be summoned for coercion.
Amid the approval that the Assembly made this Wednesday of a new law to protect the rights of older adults, the directors of the Asylum Sara Zaldívar and the Salvadoran Institute of Integral Rehabilitation (ISRI), did not attend to the call of the deputies to explain the death of more than 50 elderly people in this reception center.
The two officials apologized for having activities within their institutions that they could not postpone. Both letters were received that day by the special commission investigating the government’s handling of the pandemic.
“In reference to note received No.6371 dated January 25, 2021, in which I am required to an urgent work session on Wednesday, January 27 of the current year, at 11:30 am; that report, which has scheduled activities, which I could not postpone due to the urgency of the time with which I was convened. For the above, I will not be able to attend the session “, justified Claudia Susana Barahona of Melara, director of the Sara Zaldívar Care Center.
ISRI President Mayra Ligia Gallardo Alvarado explained in her note that: “I have a work agenda scheduled at the institution I chair and this is non-delegable.”
Deputies wanted to know first hand the reasons that led to more than 50 elderly adults receiving care in the Sara Zaldívar Asylum dying of COVID-19, according to the report issued by the Office of the Attorney General for the Defense of Human Rights.
To the question, the president of the special commission, and deputy of ARENA, Emilio Corea, explained that already the ninth time that they apologize of not going to the commission of Health, to the one of Family and to other commissions of work legislatures to which they have been summoned.
“We are summoning them again for Monday 1 February at 1pm, otherwise they arrive, on 3 February we are summoning them for coercion,” Korea said.