41 Supreme Court. In the unconstitutionality judgment on Law 25 handed down on April 23, 1991, no reference was made to the unconstitutionality block; however, they examined the possible violation of some articles of the San Jose Pact. k. Statement of Jorge de-la-Guardia, Director General of the IRHE between December 1989 and April 1991 The Water Resources and Electric Power Institute was the agency responsible, at the time of the events, for the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power throughout the country. He worked at said Institute from November 1970 to August 1988. He worked practically everywhere in the country building hydroelectric plants, and was head of several directorates within the IRHE. On December 22, 1989, President Endara-Galimany asked him to take charge of the IRHE, of which he was Director until April 1991. Before October 1990, movements were started within the IRHE to gain a number of benefits. In October 1990 the movement, which was a part of the IRHE, was already being supported by movements from other institutions such as the INTEL, the IDAAN, etc. Upon learning about the national work stoppage announced for December 5, 1990, they summoned the entire middle management of the IRHE and informed it that the work stoppage being scheduled was illegal and that disciplinary sanctions were going to be imposed if it did take place. At the same time, a notice and a circular note were sent to all the personnel of the IRHE to inform it that the work stoppage was illegal, and that the day for which the stoppage was scheduled was regarded as a normal working day. On December 5, 1990, the previously announced collective work stoppage took place. In spite of the warning made to them, a considerable number of workers did not come to work and some work sites closed completely. Between 10 and 20 per cent of IRHE staff members did not work that day. The activities of the Institute were not placed at serious risk, since personnel that was totally trustworthy to the directors was assigned to take charge of each of the areas, thus preventing a power outage or any other incident of this type. At a given moment the Minister of Labour made a public statement declaring the work stoppage illegal. After the start of the stoppage, its organisers never announced publicly that they had decided to terminate it. At some work sites the personnel started to go back to work the same day, December 5, and later, the following day, practically everything had gone back to normal. He does not remember the exact time that the workers started to go back to work, but it could have been in the afternoon. By November, 1990 the IRHE had approximately 5,000 employees who, for the most part, were members of the IRHE Workers Union. While the work stoppage was in progress, the workers of the institution had knowledge of the development of colonel Eduardo Herrera-Hassán’s military uprising, and of the outcome of his December 5, 1990, attempted coup. Everybody knew what was happening, since information on the events was being aired over the radio and television since the evening of the previous day. An extreme emergency situation prevailed in Panama in December, 1990, which placed democracy and the very existence of the State in danger, and which justified the dismissal of the IRHE workers and the application of Law 25. Proof of this is that the stoppage, which placed the national electrical system in danger, coincided with the escape of colonel Herrera-Hassán. Approximately 150 IRHE workers were dismissed in the first instance because of the application of Law 25 of 1990. He signed the dismissal notices. The grounds for dismissal was their participation in an illegal work stoppage. A process of selection of the workers who had been dismissed was conducted at the IRHE. Meetings were held among supervisors, section chiefs, and department heads to establish who were the employees who had not gone to work that day, who had organised the stoppage, and who had urged the others to