Chile’s Piñera appeals to the Constitutional Court to stop pandemic pension withdrawals

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Chilean government resorted this Tuesday, April 20, to the Constitutional Court to stop the bill that allows a third ‘pandemic’ withdrawal of 10% of pension funds, according to the Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Juan José Ossa, from the presidential palace of La Moneda in Santiago.

“It is our duty to ensure that the rules that currently govern us are respected,” said the head of the Segpres, flanked by the ministers of the General Secretariat of Government, Jaime Bellolio, and the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Cerda.

According to Ossa, the project for the early withdrawal of pension funds, the third to be processed so far in the pandemic in the South American country, “threatens the quality of life of Chileans”.

The announcement was made after the Senate Constitution Committee, the body where the initiative is going through its last legislative procedure, approved the document in general and scheduled its imminent vote in the chamber for Thursday.

The possibility of filing an injunction before the Constitutional Court had been anticipated by Ossa, who attended the parliamentary debate in commissions and President Sebastián Piñera himself in press conferences.

Presented by several groups of congressmen, including representatives of the ruling party, the measure of a third early withdrawal of pension funds was promoted under the argument that the US$18 billion in aid announced by the Government “are not reaching the people”.

In the face of this criticism, it was Piñera himself who announced yesterday, Monday, a new package of fiscal contributions equivalent to US$5.5 billion to face the economic crisis in Chile, which according to World Bank figures implied that 2.3 million people went from the middle class to a state of vulnerability.

Given the Executive’s action, opposition deputy Cristina Girardi pointed out that Piñera “did not understand reasons. It doesn’t matter what the rest of humanity thinks (…) he does not listen to pain, needs, nothing. It doesn’t matter if the world falls; he is going to do it all the same”.

Meanwhile, Christian Democrat Senator Ximena Rincón described as “regrettable” that the President “does not understand that the citizens require help”.

According to the Superintendency of Pensions, around 4.9 million members of the Pension Fund Administrators, private companies which have recorded multi-million profits in recent years, will not have funds for a third retirement.

The Chilean individually-funded system has been strongly questioned for delivering unrealistic pensions to the population. More and more voices call for moving towards a more solidarity-based model as other countries in the world are doing.

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