Ferrer Santiago, citing Vázquez Garced conviction, rips NPP House majority for nixing request to address bodyguards bill

Rep. Héctor Ferrer Santiago

Meanwhile, another former governor is blamed for PR bankruptcy

By THE STAR STAFF

Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Rep. Héctor Ferrer Santiago charged on Tuesday that the New Progressive Party (NPP) majority once again protected the interests of former Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced by defeating the request to address Senate Bill 752, a measure that seeks to limit the use of bodyguards for convicted former officials.

“Today, the NPP majority in the House had the opportunity to do the right thing and once again decided to look the other way,” said the PDP minority leader in the lower chamber of the island Legislature. “Why are they protecting Wanda Vázquez so much? What does she know about them that they have already refused to address this issue three times?”

Ferrer Santiago emphasized that the measure, approved unanimously in the island Senate, aims to prevent people such as Vázquez Garced, who is to face sentencing after pleading guilty to accepting campaign funds from a foreign donor, from continuing to receive bodyguard services paid for with public funds.

“There is no justification for the people of Puerto Rico to continue paying for bodyguards for a former official convicted of corruption,” he said. “Even less so when we are experiencing a security crisis that affects every corner of the island. Just today, the sixth massacre of the year was reported, while the government insists on assigning agents to protect a person who has already been found guilty in federal court.”

Authorities on Tuesday morning were investigating a multiple homicide involving three victims in front of the Nueva Cosecha Church on Monserrate Avenue in Carolina.

Ferrer Santiago called on the NPP majority to reconsider their position and allow the measure to be discussed in the full House with the transparency and urgency the issue deserves.

“The country’s security must be the priority, not the privileges of those close to the NPP,” he said. “The people are tired of the political misuse of public resources.”

Vázquez Garced wasn’t the only former Puerto Rico governor to come under rhetorical fire from the political opposition on Tuesday.

NPP Sen. Gregorio Matías Rosario supported Gov. Jenniffer González Colón’s recent statements in which she identified former Gov. Alejandro García Padilla as one of the main culprits behind Puerto Rico’s fiscal collapse, stating that the economic crisis the island faced was a direct result of his lack of leadership, improvisation and poor decisions.

“Governor Jenniffer González is absolutely right. Alejandro García Padilla was the governor who led Puerto Rico to bankruptcy,” Matías Rosario said. “His administration was the one that defaulted on the debt, caused the collapse of public credit, and plunged the country into the worst fiscal crisis in its history.”

“The governor must also emphasize that Alejandro García Padilla signed the disastrous Law 3 of 2013, which eliminated the health insurance plan and cut police pensions by more than half …,” the senator added “They now have to wait until they are 55 years old, whereas before they were 49 years old with 30 years of service, and with a pension of less than 23%. Regular government employees are now forced to work until they are 65 years old, with a pittance of 21 and 22%.”

Matías Rosario went on to contend that under García Padilla’s administration, from 2013 to 2017, more than 95 taxes were approved, debt payments were defaulted upon, the sales and use tax was raised to 11.5%, and bond issues were issued with interest rates of over 10%, opening the door to vulture bonds. This in turn, the senator said, closed Puerto Rico’s access to financial markets and led to the imposition of the Financial Oversight and Management Board.

García Padilla was the island’s most recent PDPgovernor, with NPP candidates for La Fortaleza winning the past three elections.

“It was a four-year period of bad decision after bad decision,” Matías Rosario said. “He brazenly proclaimed that he had ‘fixed the finances,’ but what he did was demonstrate our colonial reality, where unelected individuals have the final say on the daily decisions of our government. Instead of addressing the problems and presenting solutions, García Padilla abandoned his constitutional responsibility and handed Puerto Rico’s future over to a board imposed by Congress. That is the reality that the Popular Party refuses to accept.”