If those who aspire to the presidency must be evaluated by the seriousness with which they have carried out their previous responsibilities – especially if these have been political in nature –, the candidate Roberto Sánchez would have to be failed. As is known, in his capacity as a congressman, he has chaired the Special Multiparty Commission to Promote and Monitor the Chancay Multipurpose Terminal Project and, although his commitment was to deliver the final report on October 20, 2024, until now, after having concluded his parliamentary management, the content or conclusions of that document are not known. It is worth wondering if, in the midst of the turbulence of the campaign, he will have been able to fully fulfill the role entrusted to him.
Meanwhile, in salaries alone, the aforementioned commission has cost the State more than two million soles. Although it now only has three workers, it is important to note that, throughout the more than two years in which it has operated, the work group has had 16 workers, including technicians, assistants and advisors, with salaries ranging between 3,600 soles and 14 thousand soles per month. It is also a form in which former Mincetur officials (which Sánchez headed during Pedro Castillo’s government) and members of Together for Peru appear and have appeared. Like, for example, Miguel Palomino de la Gala, who was vice minister of Foreign Trade for the current candidate and until now receives a monthly remuneration of S/12,100. Or his party colleagues Zoila Soledad Yauri Aquino and Arsy Yovera Coveñas, whose monthly salaries were S/5,596.61 and S/6,104.01, respectively.
When he requested the formation of the commission, in October 2023, Sánchez declared that his objective was to carry out the study, monitoring and follow-up of port infrastructure and complementary works, as well as coordinate, promote and recommend public policy actions, plans, programs, productive and industrial development strategies linked to the commercial and logistics chain of maritime transport. None of this seems to have happened or finished happening and everything indicates that this group was used as a pretext to give work to close friends and co-religionists.
When this newspaper consulted about the last extension, the Together for Peru candidate responded through Palomino de la Gala that it is due to the need to carry out “actions of facilitation, articulation and rapprochement between the competent entities, the private sector and civil society, especially to contribute to the mitigation of social conflicts.” Nothing more than sophisticated rhetoric to justify a costly unfulfilled task.
