Top Dominican official defends family mired in scandal

Santo Domingo.- The minister of Interior and on Monday defended aggression by his nephew, Eduardo Villaman Fadul, who was caught on video shoving two traffic cops while shouting obscenities

Police Ramon Fadul also said his sister Rosa Fadul de Villaman was a “dignified” public servant who in his view deserves her RD$50,000 per month pension, in addition to a RD$160,000 monthly salary in s government agency, a practice which violates the country’s law.

Interviewed on Color Vision Channel 9 by journalists Edith Feble and Marino Zapete, the official denied that his nephew charged two salaries, and “wasn’t given an apartment at an undervalued price,”

He called his nephew is a correct person, who “has never killed anyone, never sold drugs, and although he had been paid a salary as a lieutenant in the National Police, resigned (didn’t specify date) and had requested a sabbatical from in his post in New York’s Dominican consulate to care for Eduardo Fadul’s “sick mother,” Rosa.

He said the posts attributed to Villaman Fadul aren’t the result of nepotism and doesn’t know about the official license plate of the Customs Agency his nephew was using at the time of the incident with the traffic police. “He was never helped by any godfather.”

When Febles said they were going to show the video of the incident, Fadul stopped her stating he didn’t want to see it again.

Taxpayers’ money

When Zapete told Fadul that the members of the ruling PLD party in government posts are taking taxpayers’ money for their own use, the official said it was “the will of the people” which voted for his political organization.