The president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, acknowledges that the devastating legal report by a Cabildo technician on the Stratvs winery and on the Special Plan of La Geria, prepared at the request of Judge Silvia Muñoz, has "set off all the alarms" in the institution. "It puts the entire Corporation, all the lawyers of the Corporation, at the feet of the horses," San Ginés said on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero, referring to the part of that report that concludes that the La Geria Plan, recently approved, has "vices of nullity."
Therefore, he believes that he was "fulfilling his obligation" when he sent a letter to the judge stating that the report signed by the technician Joana Macías had not been "validated" by the Cabildo, that it "exceeded the content of what was requested" by the Court and even that it contained "errors."
After receiving that letter, the judge responded in a provision emphasizing that the reports issued by a technician within a judicial case cannot be "supervised" or "validated" and even warning San Ginés that trying to "influence" the experts may constitute a crime. However, the president has replied to the judge again assuring that he is "very calm", and even anticipating that they intend to prepare a 'counter-report' in which "the legal services" of the Corporation are already working.
"If we do nothing, it is the Cabildo itself that says that the Plan is null, it is very serious, the rest of the Corporation's lawyers and the Canarian Government are very worried, because there are very serious accusations in the report," the president stated.
"Incursion" of "the judiciary"
"Of course, assessing whether there is an excess over the object is only up to her (referring to Judge Silvia Muñoz), but it would be too much if it were not also up to the Cabildo if it is being judged not only whether or not the law is complied with, but the law itself," San Ginés replied, referring to the fact that the La Geria Plan itself is being questioned.
He has even stated that "what would be an incursion" is that "the judiciary intended to prevent" the institution from "supervising the legal reports" of its technicians "that do not comply with the law". "They are not going to prevent it," he added.
"Common sense tells me that I am not only not committing any crime, but fulfilling my obligation. The rule is that all legal reports go through the legal services and when it is not a matter of expertise, it is corrected," he insisted.
About Stratvs, "the conclusions are possibly correct"
In addition to questioning the possible nullity of the Special Plan of La Geria, both the report of the lawyer Joana Macías and another prepared by the Cabildo technician Gustavo Navarro conclude that the Stratvs winery is illegal and cannot be legalized. Even, despite the attempt to cover it that has been given in the Special Plan of La Geria, which according to the technician includes "determinations contrary to the law."
"It is asked whether the Stratvs winery has a place or can be regularized within the framework of the Special Plan of La Geria and the conclusions are probably correct in that sense, but something serious, very serious, I would say very serious, has happened here, and that is that it violates the institution's own acts, and that is what the legal services are warning me about. And of course, if the Cabildo is aware that the judge in the formation of his criteria is handling a report that is not assumed by the Cabildo, by its legal services, because it is erroneous in its scope and content, it is my obligation and I am going to do it, to bring it to the attention of the judge," San Ginés insisted, admitting that "it is true that then it is up to her (referring again to the judge) to take it or not into consideration."
In the same vein, he insisted that on the other technical report requested by the Court, which also concludes that there are illegal irregularities in Stratvs, "they have not objected anything" and that "what is objected to is the legal report because it does not limit itself to assessing whether Stratvs has a place in the Special Plan of La Geria, but to attack the illegality of the Plan itself."
"The lawyers cannot find an explanation for it"
In addition to defending the processing of the La Geria Plan that has just been approved (and that according to the Cabildo technician has "vices of nullity"), San Ginés has also questioned other conclusions of Joana Macías' report, although he has clarified that he does not know "anything about law" and that he bases his opinion on the opinion "of several Cabildo lawyers" and "the head of legal services."
"The report says that the La Geria Plan places a management office in Stratvs and that we must pay them 10,000 euros, and the lawyers cannot find any explanation as to where this conclusion is deduced from the plan", San Ginés pointed out, also questioning that there are underground waters in the place where the winery stands. "It is the first time that I read and hear this about the underground waters, there are old reports that say the opposite," the president maintains. It should be noted that the existence of aquifers becomes important in view of one of the facts that are being investigated in the Stratvs case, for an alleged environmental crime due to spills.
In addition, San Ginés has stressed that the judge's response, expressed in a provision transferred to the parties in the case, has not been notified to him personally. "If they ever communicate to me what has been published in the sense that it could be an incursion into the expert independence to try to influence their reports, I will tell them that they are absolutely right, but since I have not influenced anything, neither the report of the technician in question nor the one that the legal services of the Corporation are preparing, my peace of mind is absolute," he concluded.
