PDP chides PIP over anonymous political donations
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
By THE STAR STAFF
Popular Democratic Party (PDP) officials intensified their criticism of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) on Wednesday, arguing that newly examined fundraising records show an outsized reliance on anonymous and cash donations and reinforce the need for stricter campaign‑finance rules.
PIP President Juan Dalmau Ramírez said that unlike the PDP, the PIP does not engage in political investments and that all donations to the PIP are legal.
PDP Secretary General Manuel Calderón Cerame said public reports from the Office of the Electoral Comptroller indicate the PIP has raised more than $200,000 in anonymous contributions and $139,000 in cash between 2025 and 2026. He presented the findings alongside Anibelle Sloan, president of the PDP Women’s Association, and Abner Otero, president of the PDP Lawyers’ Association.
The disclosure comes after PDP President Pablo José Hernández Rivera proposed tightening limits on anonymous and cash donations to curb money laundering and increase transparency in political fundraising. Calderón Cerame said the numbers underscore why those reforms are necessary.
According to the PDP’s analysis, 52.75% of the PIP’s reported fundraising -- $262,458.54 out of $497,551.75 -- came from anonymous or cash donations. Of that total, $200,955.26 were anonymous contributions, $139,580.24 were cash donations, and $78,291.96 were anonymous cash donations.
Calderón Cerame argued that the scale of anonymous fundraising raises questions. He said the PIP is “the party that has collected the most anonymous money” and added that “no one knows” the source of those funds. He contrasted that with the PDP’s own reports, which show that only 0.11% of its fundraising in 2025-26 -- $1,349 out of $1.17 million -- came in cash and that the party reported no anonymous donations. He said the PDP is “setting the example” by changing its practices and pushing for systemic reform.
The PDP leaders also responded to criticism from Dalmau, who has accused the PDP of receiving donations from lobbyists. Calderón Cerame said the party compared its fundraising records with the Senate’s lobbyist registry and found that less than three cents of every dollar raised by Hernández Rivera and the PDP came from lobbyists or their clients. He said that level of scrutiny is possible precisely because the PDP does not accept anonymous donations, unlike the PIP, which he said has not disclosed the origin of more than $200,000 raised in the past year and a half.
Dalmau said the PDP is trying to divert attention from the issue of political investments and insisted all of the donations received by the PIP are legal. He said the PIP has not been singled out for irregularities in its contributions, adding that the PIP does not engage in political investments like the pro-commonwealth PDP or the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.