It's unclear what kind of struggle is being waged here. For sure, it's either a judicial or administrative struggle over a specific exercise of power ... the "little checks."

If judicial, the question is whether the state that Leonel administers has the power under existing DR laws to distribute the "little checks" in exchange for services or no services.

If administrative, the question is whether Leonel abused or properly exercised his executive discretion where authority in form of positive law was unnecessary.

Since in a democracy, (1) supreme power resides in the voting citizens (2) who elect their representatives [here, Leonel & his team], (3) the representatives are accountable to the voting citizens, and (4) the representatives exercise power in accordance with the rule of law, this is obviously some kind of (4) or "rule of law" case.

But what kind of rule of law case?

Whatever it is, it seems to have limited capacity to discredit Leonel with voting citizens.

On Tuesday, March 18, the JCE asks Leonel to respond "as soon as possible" to PRD's complaint about the "little checks."

The JCE disguised the PRD's complaint as the findings of an investigation conducted by journalist Nuria Piera.

One day later, today, JCE announces that a hearing will be held on the PRD's complaint on Friday, March 28, at 3:00 PM. Clearly, the JCE is not "postponing" anything, rather the JCE is setting a deadline for Leonel to respond, giving the PLD only 10 days to respond "as soon as possible."

Possible responses:

(1) This a non-electoral issue outside of the JCE turf [This is weak because the "little checks" seem to have gone to only PLD proletarians.]

(2) "Little checks" are DR political tradition, regardless of party in power, which JCE has ignored.

(3) PLD proletarians performed services for their "little checks"

(4) If the money had gone to the bourgeoisie, neither PRD nor Nuria would have complained. [Unlikely, due to class bias]

I would suggest that the Honorable Magistrates of the Electoral Court call the following witnesses in the article below:

Source DR1

AM: Deep-rooted problem

Today's Diario Libre page two editorial, written by editor Adriano Tejada, says that if any proof was needed about the famous CB payrolls, it has been given by former PLD party activist lawyer Pedro P. Yermenos Forastieri in an article published in El Nacional newspaper. Yermenos comments in the opinion piece on the government's decision to put party leaders (Base Committee members) on the national payroll. This irregular use of taxpayer money was denounced by journalists Marino Zapeta in his radio program and blog and Nuria Piera on her radio and TV talk shows. Yermenos now reveals that the scandal that the journalists have brought into the open was the last straw that led him to resign from the PLD in September 2007after 30 years as a member.

Countinued

At the time he said he was resigning to protest against the fact that the party had distanced itself from the ideals of its founder Juan Bosch. Yermenos now explains that he had been watching what he describes as the party's "progressive degeneration". He said that the deciding moment came when he was told he too would receive a check as a party leader.
In his commentary, he recalls the evening when a party member showed up with a list of party Base Committee members who were not working in government, and announced that as of the 30th, they would be assigned a check as a reward for their party membership. His own check was in that allotment.
See http://www.elnacional.com.do/article.aspx?id=41654

Continued:

In today's Diario Libre editorial, newspaper executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada writes that the problem is how to put an end to this if here poverty has been perpetuated as a way of keeping people dependent on gifts; a bag of food, a little box of foodstuffs or the small check. This is an age-old, deep-rooted problem. Pedro Francisco Bono, a noted 19th century statesman wrote in the 1880s: "That 'blue' of today, for example, who is thrown out of a job or the pension he is enjoying, will be 'red' tomorrow, and that 'red' of yesterday, to whom they give said job or pension, at once becomes 'blue'. (Opinions of a Dominican, 13 January 1884). Tejada ends by saying that politics based on money will not permit us to get out of the hole we're in.
Marino Zapete tells the story of the Base Committee allocations in a blog entry, "Cuantas Botellas, Profesor" at http://www.jarabedemarino.blogspot.com/

A nice look at some of the mechanics of the operation.

thanks for all that, Josean. we all know that the political directorate deliberately keeps people in a state of misery in order to buy them off cheaply. well fed, well educated people with opportunities for advancement cast a jaundiced eye upon degenerates who seek to buy their allegiance with alcohol and livestock. we think that we will become modern if we build skyscrapers, but this stuff keeps us mired in feudalism!

Educación breeds discontent. Keep us stupid.

well said, BASTA. a scandinavian country would never have elected someone like hippo for dogcatcher!

This is one of the reason we need someone with an iron feast.
all this Botella as they used to called them.. a farmer collecting a paycheck as a doctor... cuando el PRD...
funny... only in the DR.

casa colonial hotel in playa dorada is crooked and physically assaulted my pregnant wife. avoid at all cost!!!!