Rubilar under pressure: he asked La Moneda for space to defend himself against a complaint for the use of public resources for his partner’s campaign

“Does Karla Rubilar still have your trust?” That was the query that they made this morning to President Sebastián Piñera when he entered the Palacio de La Moneda. The President, however, kept walking, limited himself to saying hello and saying “good morning.”

The question about the Minister of Social Development was due to the report that Canal 13 issued last night in which it was pointed out that Rubilar had used public resources to favor the candidacy for deputy for district 8 of his partner, the journalist Christian Pino.

In the audiovisual investigation, WhatsApp messages are shown in which the head of Social Development instructs communications officials of the portfolio to carry out functions for Pino’s campaign.

In La Moneda, the questions to Rubilar generated immediate concern. On the Second Floor and in the ministries of the political committee they learned about the investigation on Friday and there, according to government sources, they asked Rubilar for explanations.

The minister, according to the same sources, asked to be given room to defend herself. Among his arguments, he indicated that he does not consider that the law was contravened since – according to internally maintained – “collation” hours were used.

The Comptroller’s Office established in a 2020 opinion that “the public official, in the performance of his position, may not carry out activities unrelated to him, such as those of a contingent political nature, nor use that employment to favor or harm a certain candidacy. ”.

Similarly, the same opinion established that “the use of electronic means, both computer platforms, institutional servers and boxes assigned to officials, can only be used for the purposes of the service or municipality, without their being admissible. employment for proselytizing purposes ”. While article 64 of the constitutional organic law of general bases of the State administration establishes that the principle of probity is “contravened” by “occupying time of the working day or using personnel or resources of the organism for personal benefit or for purposes other than institutional ones ”.

Anyway, in the government there are those who believe that Rubilar’s permanence in office is unsustainable, especially at a time when they have been hit by other investigations that directly target the President in the case of the Dominga mining company and that, for the same, they must give signals to the citizenry. In that sense, in the Palace they admit that the episode opens a new flank for the government at a time when they are already going through a crisis.

However, some voices in the Executive in the morning transmitted that “it was not so serious”, while in RN – a party in which Rubilar was once a member and now remains close – its president, Francisco Chahuán, came out to shield it.

“It is a situation that in our opinion, and I believe Karla Rubilar, does not have criminal acts (…) As far as we know, and with the background that we have on Karla Rubilar herself, we believe that here we do not there is use of public resources. And, therefore, these facts must be clarified, investigated to the last consequences, ”said the senator. And when asked if Rubilar should resign, he replied: “How can you think of it? of course not”.

Regarding whether Piñera has asked him to resign, until the close of this edition, the Palace did not need that information and insisted that Rubilar asked for margin to defend himself. Yes, the same sources add that the President is “concerned” about the issue.

The argumentative line to defend oneself, according to comments in the environment of the minister, is an opinion of May 13, 2016 in which although it was established that “it is not appropriate to use the social network WhatsApp to give instructions related to work performance”, it was modified in 2019 establishing that “it is not considered an official means to give instructions to personal WhatsApp”.

Except for a message that he posted last night on his Instagram account – in which he said that “I fight my battles on my knees, recognizing that God has the power to give me victory – Rubilar, until the closing of this edition, had kept silent, just like your communications equipment. Both were contacted by La Tercera PM and did not respond to messages.

Pino, meanwhile, only indicated to this medium that “since we learned that my candidacy was scoring well in the district 8 polls, we hoped that something like this could come against us.”

Anyway, in the Palace several urged that the minister had to give prompt explanations to try to close the issue.

One of the critics within the ruling party was the deputy, Camilo Morán (RN), who is a direct competitor of Pino in that district. “Of course they are for disapproval, they do not correspond, for transparency, less to take advantage of a candidate for deputy. It is a mistake that has to be corrected. Let those involved make their own decisions and carry out their explanations, “he said, avoiding criticizing Rubilar.

In RN, in fact, there are several grassroots leaders who in WhatsApp groups supported the minister. And, according to one version of the party, the community led by Chahuán is advocating for her to remain in office.

The issue was also consulted with the flag-bearer of Chile Podemos Más, Sebastián Sichel, who avoided giving his support to the minister. “More research needs to be done. I saw the note yesterday. As I have always said, all the transparency and information possible. I have already found out many times that only half of the information is leaked and I think the minister has to explain it, but I healthily presume that indeed serious work has been done there, ”he said.

On whether Rubilar should resign, Sichel added that it is a government decision, where – in his opinion – she has “general support.” In any case, the flag-bearer of Chile Podemos Más assured that I will “support” Pino, as well as all the candidates from that district.

In the opposition, meanwhile, the issue escalated to the point that the head of the DC deputies, Gabriel Ascencio, announced yesterday that he will officiate at the Comptroller’s Office for the facts, in what he described as an “open electoral intervention” by of Rubilar.

In the agency, on the other hand, it requested a report with background information on the case from the Undersecretariat of Social Evaluation, requesting that said document be “prepared with the intervention of the legal advisor of that entity (…) In addition, all the necessary background information must be submitted to adequately resolve the presentation in question ”.

In any case, the Comptroller’s Office transmitted that the ministry could have a point in their favor in relation to the fact that WhatsApp is not an official means of work, but that the flank for the minister lay in deciding whether the steps were made during hours of work and with institutional telephones and internet paid by the portfolio.

In addition, the association of officials of that ministry attacked by means of a statement in which they asked the Comptroller’s Office to investigate the matter. “The public function cannot be sullied in this way (…) This type of action muddies the great work carried out by civil servants”, they criticized, adding that “we will not accept that those who have had the courage to denounce this a practice at odds with any precept of administrative probity ”.

Last May, Piñera – according to what they said in those days in La Moneda – planned to carry out a cabinet adjustment, which included the departure of Rubilar, along with other modifications. The reasons, according to what they used at that time, was that the President wanted a political committee that was in tune with each other. This, because it was no secret to anyone that the minister maintained differences with her peers Jaime Bellolio (Segegob) and Juan José Ossa (Segpres), which would remain until today.

In that month, the decision went through the differences that transcended with respect to Piñera’s decision to go to the Constitutional Court for the project for the third retirement of pensions. There, it was known that, unlike his peers, Rubilar opposed the idea, which ended up generating discomfort. Even the secretaries of state of the political committee sent a letter to this medium to try to clear up doubts and saying that they all agreed on the decision.

However, as the days went by, the adjustment was diluted, as they said in La Moneda, due to lack of cast to assume and due to the fact that RN pressed for the permanence of Rubilar who they consider a good minister.

Another of the episodes that generated discomfort in the Executive was, also last May, when the then Undersecretary of Social Services, Sebastián Villarreal, resigned, who would have left his post for maintaining differences with the minister, among other matters, as a result of the IFE .

In those days, the intervention that Rubilar had made at the end of April, when he addressed the issue of the mining royalty, did not go down either, and said that “you have to think about taxes on those who have more.” This, they say in the Executive, left the biminister of Energy and Mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, on the wrong foot, who was in charge of the matter.

The minister’s own relationship with the journalist was viewed with suspicion from the beginning in La Moneda. Mainly it caused discomfort among the authorities that Pino installed himself as Rubilar’s advisor and included himself in official chats and activities.

In fact, to neutralize criticism, Rubilar gave the green light to a symbolic contract for his partner: only one peso.

However, Pino’s presence continued to cause friction at the seat of government. At least until the launch of his candidacy for deputy took him away from the ministerial halls.