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Hon. Requena Demands Pay For Alcalde’s In His Area
Thu, November 16, 2017
If you don't live in the south, you may not know it, but village Alcalde's and Second Alcalde's actually function as magistrates in their villages - adjudicating disputes and mediating differences. And they get paid for it - or they should get paid, at least. It's 100 monthly for Alcalde's and 50 monthly for the Second.

But, Alcalde's and Second Alcalde's in as many as 20 villages say they haven't been paid since January - and today their area representative came to the city to say it's unacceptable, and that he blames the Attorney General, and the Prime Minister:...

Hon. Oscar Requena, Area Rep., Toledo West
"It is very unfair what the government is doing to our alcalde's, not paying them since January of this year. We are basically talking 10 months going into 11 months at the end of November that our alcalde's have not been received their stipend. As you are aware the attorney general went on record - I think it was sometime either in August or September when he went on record and said 'oh the alcalde's have not received their stipend' because in his view they had to be trained, in terms of how to execute their job and that was the reason for the delay of their stipend. But once the training was done and he swore them in which he did, that they were to received their pay retroactive January. Today is past the middle of November and the alcalde's have not received a single penny."

"Man, the first alcalde receives $100; the second alcalde gets $50 a month. It is unfair. I am wondering is the government so broke? Are they so mean-spirited? Are they so cold-hearted? These people serve a very important role in our communities. They maintain law and order. Why is it that our alcalde's cannot their money?"

"I am calling here today on the Prime Minister. I am calling here on the Attorney General to honor his word."

Attorney General Mike Peyreffite - who went down south in September to train Alcalde's in the limits and use of their powers did respond to our request for comment. He said, first, that when he went to see the Alcalde's in the south - Requena was nowhere to be seen - so he finds his appearance now very opportunistic. As to the pending pay, he says his ministry sent the information to the Ministry of Finance from September. Finance is to forward payments to ministry of local government which then puts it in account of alcaldes.

Tomorrow, Peyrefitte will tell us exactly when local government will make the deposits. But, what's the delay? Well it turns out that in the past - the Alcaldes pay was sent to private individuals in Toledo who would then distribute it to them. A very unusual arrangement and that system has now been scrapped. The delay in this case has been setting up accounts for all 80 Alcaldes and Second Alcaldes in the Treasury Department system.

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