Senate convenes full committee to question health secretary-designate

Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz

By The Star Staff

Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz announced Wednesday that a Full Committee hearing will be held next week, to which Dr. Carlos Díaz Vélez, president of the Physicians and Surgeons Association of Puerto Rico (CMCPR), and Dr. Víctor Ramos Otero, the designated secretary of the Department of Health, will be summoned.

“On Thursday, March 27, we will have a Full Committee to question the president of the Physicians Association, Dr. Carlos Díaz, at 9:30 a.m. in the Leopoldo Figueroa Room,” Rivera Schatz said on the Senate floor. “That same day, at 1:30 p.m., we will summon Dr. Víctor Ramos, designated secretary of Health, to a Full Committee so that all senators can ask questions.”

The persistent doubts around Ramos’ nomination stem from allegations by Díaz Vélez, who claims that while Ramos was president of the Medical Association, he convinced doctors to invest $1.4 million in a medical plan that never materialized and whose funds disappeared.

Díaz Vélez confirmed in a press conference that he will send a package of documents to the Senate Appointments Committee.

“And there’s no need to hide anything here,” Díaz Vélez stated at a press conference. “Someone said that everything I was going to say was a lie, it was all a lie. Here are the documents; all of these documents will be sent to the Appointments Committee between today and tomorrow. They will be delivered to the president of the Senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz. He already knows that I’m going to deliver these documents and is very receptive to receiving them. He told me that I’ll be called at some point with any questions or concerns, and I told him yes, I’m willing.”

The physician noted that Ramos was summarily suspended from the CMCPR governing board when he was a member as outgoing president, “because it was confirmed that, behind the board’s back and without authorization, he involved the Association in an illegal loan.”

“There is a health plan that was established in January 2017. In June, a usurious loan was requested, supposedly for payroll,” Díaz Vélez said at a press conference. “In November, $1.2 million was transferred from an escrow account to a checking account. Initial payments were made from June to November and December to this illegal usurious loan from the Association’s fund. Later, in a conversation with the lawyer, I asked him, ‘Are you crazy? What did you do, a usurious loan? Who did you take that from?’ I overheard that conversation with Mr. Collazo and Mr. Cardona, and he admitted that he took out a usurious loan without presenting it to the board.”

The president of the CMCPR alleged that Ramos continued to pay the loan without the board’s authorization and that the amount disbursed between the different phases of the health plan reached $128,000.

“I ask the health plan investors: Did you authorize a loan shark to be paid from your shares? That’s for Dr. Ramos to answer,” Díaz Vélez said. “This was a clear violation of the regulations and an act of disrespect toward this institution, for which he was expelled.”

Díaz Vélez also confirmed that he received a request last Monday from La Fortaleza to provide a copy of the documents related to the case.