Almost two years after the pandemic National Assembly debates law for the management of the health emergency

Almost two years after the first case of coronavirus in Ecuador, the National Assembly will try, this January 11, to process in the first debate the project for the management of the health emergency due to pandemic caused by COVID-19 and its variants, which regulates the procedure for the declaration of health alerts.

What is sought is to institutionalize at the legal level the operation of the Emergency Operations Committees as inter-institutional coordination bodies responsible for actions to respond to emergency situations caused by the coronavirus, but it will not be able to dictate provisions that suspend or restrict constitutional rights .

The proposal under debate intends to implement a control regime regarding mobility, use of public and meeting spaces, control over fairs and markets and commerce, and also the control of capacity in the different commercial activity establishments. Establishes penalties and fines for not observing the provisions.

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Legislators Marlon Cadena (ID) and Juan Cristóbal Lloret (UNES) warn of a breach of the ruling of the Constitutional Court by the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, as the highest control body set in April 2021 a deadline to remit a project to regulate the management of the pandemic and prevent the proliferation of states of exception; And although ex-president Lenín Moreno submitted a proposal, it was withdrawn by the current president and he never sent a new project again. The text that is being processed by the legislature responds to an initiative of the Board of Health.

Cadena explained that the previous government presented a project together with the Emergency Operations Committee (National COE), but that due to alleged unconstitutionalities, the current president withdrew it and there is no proposal at the moment. In the debate, certain attributions granted to the COE should be observed, and these should not in any way restrict rights, he said.

Lloret warned that the failure to comply with a ruling of the Constitutional Court by the president is an object of concern and that it should be analyzed by the Assembly; however, he said that the fact that Parliament also has legislative power will have to be analyzed.

The ruling party commissioned the spokesperson on this issue to the legislator María José Plaza, according to its co-chairman Juan Fernando Flores, and it will be she who refers to the issue; However, the assemblywoman who represents Pichincha for CREO did not respond to calls or telephone messages about what the plenary session will debate starting at 09:30.

Content

The report on this project will enter into debate on January 11, it implements provisions for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, where the right to life, health is guaranteed, regulating the limitations of transit and assembly and inviolability of home.

It implements a control regime regarding mobility, use of public spaces and meetings, control over fairs and markets and commerce and also the control of capacity in the different establishments of commercial activities.

The proposed law seeks to institutionalize at the legal level the operation of the Emergency Operations Committees, which are established as an inter-institutional coordination body, leaving the agencies of different levels of government with exclusive and concurrent powers of the current power within the framework of its powers.

Norms are included that regulate the support of the National Police, the Armed Forces and special control entities; the use of the amounts collected by the established sanctions, which will be destined to the national health authority to mitigate the effects of the pandemic at the national level.

The project contained in 32 articles and six provisions, including general, transitory, reform and final, places on the national health authority the responsibility of declaring health alert zones for pandemics in the country, determining the geographic space, the population and the time that the measure will last, and you will have to draw up the contingency plan. You will have to justify, in each declaration, the decision and under no circumstances will it be permanent or indefinite.

Sanctions

The project establishes penalties for non-compliance with capacity in shopping centers, commercial premises, supermarkets, restaurants and other commercial activities, where a fine of two basic salaries is set for the first time and until the establishment is closed for a period of thirty days.

The sanctions referring to meetings and crowds will be those attending events ranging from community work to clean the public space to a fine of three unified basic worker salaries.

When they fail to comply with the established schedules for the free movement of pedestrians and vehicles, the penalties range from 25% of the unified basic salary to a basic salary and community service for 30 hours. In the case of motor vehicles, a fine of one to three basic salaries and the retention of the vehicle.

And people diagnosed with the COVID-19 disease or its variants who fail to comply with mandatory isolation will be sanctioned with a fine of one and a half salary of the worker in general and in case of recidivism the fine will rise to three salaries.

Constitutional opinion

The Constitutional Court for five occasions in the rulings on the states of exception dictated by the Executive due to public calamity due to the pandemic ordered the Executive and the National Assembly to prioritize the discussion and treatment of a proposed law in order to implement a regulation that allows a technical and reasonable limitation of the right to freedom of transit temporarily and solely to face the pandemic.

On April 6, 2021, the Court itself in decision 1-21-EE / 21 set a maximum period of three months for the President of the Republic to prepare and present a bill to the National Assembly. And it ordered that the National Assembly treat and discuss said project within a maximum period of six months.

On April 21 of that same year, ex-president Lenín Moreno submitted to Parliament the draft organic law for Pandemic Health Emergency Management, and the new Assembly began processing the project and prepared a draft text recommending the procedure.

But on August 12, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, withdrew the draft Organic Law for Pandemic Health Emergency Management, because in his opinion it contained unconstitutional provisions and did not respond to an economic and social reality in the country.

Guillermo Lasso withdraws project for health emergency management due to pandemic as unconstitutional and limiting rights

According to the president, this project would generate a limitation to the rights of freedom of movement, assembly and inviolability of domicile, and, in addition, the violation of legal security and did not include the economic cost that the validity of that law would mean. He promised to submit a new project, but to date no initiative has been entered since the presidency of Guillermo Lasso on this issue.

The Legislature’s Health Board, on August 13, approved a motion by legislator Luisa González (UNES), for the commission to make a bill to regulate the situation of the pandemic by virtue of the fact that it must comply with as determined by the Constitutional Court. (I)