With a proposal for the House of Representatives will adopt the pension reform text approved by the Senatethe discussion of the initiative was closed in the fourth and final debate.
Previously, the proposal heated up the spirits of some parliamentarians who questioned whether the so-called “lower house” was being relegated, and that with this the representatives were placed as simple notaries of the decisions of the senators.
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At this point there were accusations against the Minister of Information and Communications Technologies, Mauricio Lizcano, who was said to have been “gathering votes” to pass the reform, under penalty of being expelled from that portfolio if the initiative was not approved.
For its part, the representative of Risaralda, Carolina Giraldowarned that having adopted the Senate articles It would be a bad sign for democracy, since that action would mean that the Chamber could be closed, and in times when a Constituent Assembly is being held, it could be the anticipation that later the Senate could also be closed.
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Before, an attempt was made to debate article 94 of the pension reform project, which establishes that modifications to the pension system in Colombia begin on July 1 of next year.
After more than 7 hours of discussion and after several proposals were defeated for the validity to take place in 2026 or 2027 and even another for the entry into force to be staggered, The proposal ended up being imposed to accept the complete Senate text defended by the speakers of the initiative, such as the representative of the Green Alliance, Martha Alfonso Jurado..
At 11:35 in the morningwith the presentation of certificates, the plenary session of the House of Representatives began this Friday the debate on the pension reform project, text of 95 articles.
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After half an hour, the discussion advanced with the consideration of the agenda (which was approved after the vote), and the reading of some proposals unrelated to the pension change project, among them the holding of a collective yoga session (also approved ).
Given the wave of challenges filed before the House Ethics Commission, against parliamentarians and political parties, the president of that Commission, Juana Carolina Londoño, announced that on Monday a complaint will be filed with the Prosecutor’s Office, given that a good part of the challenges were presented by a person who did not provide evidence, which apparently would be trying to stop the debate on the pension reform project.
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However, in the session several representatives expressed impediments due to challenges presented on Thursday night, but the Chamber’s board of directors indicated that these actions were transferred to the Ethics Commission.
For him Minister of the Interior, Luis Fernando Velascothe challenges are “tinker tricks” that seek to prevent the most important social reform promoted by Gustavo Petro’s government from being processed.
The new impediments were voted on and denied, so the congressmen were able to take part in the deliberations that, subsequently, They focused on whether the vote on the text would be done article by article or en bloc, and the latter option was chosen.
Once again the proposal to enter reform effective in July 2025the doubts about the capacity of Colpensiones to attend to the increase in members that will be observed due to the transfer of contributors from private funds to the official entity and questions about the implementation of the so-called solidarity pillar stirred up the discussions on the premises.
Jaime Dussán, president of Colpensiones, intervened to defend the benefits of the reform and the capabilities of the entity. “Colpensiones, which has been in existence for 12 years, has pensioned 2,863,000 Colombians, has 6,844,000 affiliated people, which means that 3,986,000 people do not contribute and of those almost 1 million are not going to retire,” the official mentioned. .
Later, before 4 pm, the first block submitted to vote and approved, 6 articles, predicted that the initiative would have a procedure favorable to the interests of the Governmentwho was represented at the venue by Velasco, as well as by the Minister of Labor, Gloria Inés Ramírez, and by the head of the Treasury portfolio, Ricardo Bonilla.
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Bonilla took the opportunity to reaffirm that The Ministry of Finance has accompanied the pension reform since its establishment, and has issued a fiscal concept favorable to the provisions of the presentation text, ensuring that the project is fiscally sustainable.
Before the approval of the text that came from the Senate, it had approved a first block that had no proposals, among which are articles 51 (amount of pension replacement due to the death of the member), 62 (pension funds as autonomous assets), 66 (publication of profitability), 68 (promotion of the activities of the administrators of the complementary component), 84 (sanctions for employers who fail to comply with their obligations), 88 (commutation or constitution of annuities).
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