By The Star Staff
The judge overseeing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) Title III bankruptcy case has extended the mediation among stakeholders to Oct. 31, after a local group requested it be allowed to participate in the talks as a consumer representative.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain comes amid a request made by the mediation team.
The judge directed the mediation team, meanwhile, to continue filing monthly status reports.
Last month, Swain ordered all parties to go to mediation and imposed a 60-day moratorium on all litigation and plan proposals to help push for an adjustment plan for PREPA’s $9 billion debt.
The latest effort to get a debt adjustment plan approved was thwarted by a U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit decision in June that bondholders have an $8.5 billion secured claim, rather than a $2.4 billion claim as Swain had ruled. Swain is now tasked with determining how much bondholders would be able to collect, so she is pushing for the parties to reach a consensus.
The Puerto Rico Institute of Economic Competitiveness and Sustainability (ICSE by its initials in Spanish) filed a petition Wednesday to grant it permission to be part of the negotiations with the mediation team.
The nonprofit group said that if the government represented island consumers, there would not be a need for such representation directly elected by consumers. At this moment in time, the citizen ombudsman has not certified candidates to occupy the position of consumer representative on the PREPA governing board and has left the position vacant since March 20 of this year.
ICSE said it has been the only active party in PREPA’s debt restructuring process from the beginning, consistently advocating for the public interest.
“This has included submitting detailed expert analyses and compelling requests to address the severe socioeconomic impacts on Puerto Rican consumers who can no longer endure additional financial burdens,” the organization said. “Supported by various sectors in Puerto Rico through numerous joinder motions, ICSE has facilitated significant citizen participation before this court.”
“It is clearly an objective fact that the interests of the People of Puerto Rico (i.e., residential, commercial, and industrial customers) are not represented, either in reality or in the mediation proceedings before this Court,” the group added. “An effective step toward this goal is providing a seat at the table for those that promote their interests without biases [that are] inconsistent with Puerto Rico’s public policies.”
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