By John McPhaul
jpmcphaul@gmail.com
Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Secretary General Luis Vega Ramos described Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia’s appearance Thursday before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as “full of fallacies, mendacious and inconsequential.”
“Gov. Pierluisi tried, unsuccessfully, to sell federal senators a Puerto Rico that we all know does not exist,” Vega Ramos said. “He spoke of an economic growth that no one sees or feels, affirmed that inflation here is not as much as in the United States and that the disbursement and execution of the reconstruction projects of the various allocations from the Biden administration since more than two years ago is going at an accelerated pace.”
“Puerto Ricans know that Pierluisi’s statements are mendacious and illusory,” the PDP official continued. “It seems that having his political rival, [Resident Commissioner] Jenniffer González, looking at the back of his neck made him nervous and he tried to turn his presentation into a primary speech. He didn’t make it. It is a shame for Puerto Rico that the appearances before Congress of its elected officials become the scene of the internal struggles of the NPP [New Progressive Party].”
“When he speaks falsehoods, he disrespects the country,” Vega Ramos added. “He tries to sweep his failure under the rug. In fact, Governor Pierluisi’s presentation caused so much disbelief that one of the senators questioned him about the state of the recovery, renovation and reconstruction of our electrical system and Pierluisi had to accept that it was slow. Worse, his attempt to push for statehood was totally ignored by the members of the committee. It’s another defeat for him and another missed opportunity for Puerto Rico to advance its true agenda.”
Earlier on Thursday, PDP Rep. Jesús Manuel Ortiz González referred to the message offered by the governor as superficial and far from the reality that people are living in the street.
Ortiz González highlighted the fact that the message, which was distributed Thursday to all public employees, does not address important issues such as the high cost of living, public security crisis, delays in the disbursement of recovery funds and social problems such as access to health services and the crisis in the handling of child abuse cases.