By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Tuesday that the island Senate seems to have “desire to annoy” with regard to his cabinet appointments, and defended in particular the interim secretary of education, Dr. Ángel Toledo López, who has been criticized for comments he made 10 years ago on social networks.
“Those are not reasonable ways to act, on the contrary,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. “All nominees have the right to a fair, balanced evaluation and they cannot be, because he made some statements 10 years ago that for some are not to their liking, but in any case they have to evaluate all his personal, academic, professional, administrative background, before reaching those conclusions. What I see there is that they do not even give my appointees a chance; those are not attitudes, those are the desire to obstruct, the desire to annoy.”
Pierluisi defended Toledo López, noting that the comments were made long before he was in public service and that the official should be judged by his extensive academic and administrative career.
“They more than prepare him to occupy that post,” he added.
The governor said the focus should be on the upcoming resumption of classes and the continued transformation of the Education Department, and not on “isolated statements.”
Pierluisi also insisted that he did not fire the former education secretary, Eliezer Ramos Parés.
“I know he will continue to collaborate with my administration,” he said.