Medina breaks silence in major government corruption case

Santo Domingo.-President Danilo Medina wants the OISOE case clarified totally with "Justicehaving absolute freedom to establish the penalties," said governmentspokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena on Tuesday, becoming the first response bythe chief executive on the scandal which broke three weeks ago.

He said the President´sinterest is for the investigation to clarify everything connected with the suicideof the architect David Rodriguez, which uncovered an extortion network in thetroubled government agency. "What the Dominican people can be sure of isthat there will be sanctions."

The official defendedthe integrity of OISOE´s current director Francisco Pagan and lauded his"quick" demand of an investigation once the "unfortunate"tragedy occurred.

"We mustrecognize that Francisco Pagan himself, who´s an eminently serious, honest man,initiated the public action; He´s the one who has demanded the investigationand due punishment."