The new representative for the 26th district (Barranquitas, Orocovis, Villalba and Coamo), Orlando Aponte Rosario, will today file a measure to revoke mandatory escorts to former Puerto Rico governors, as he said, due to “ the fiscal crisis that the country goes through. and to concentrate the efforts of the police station on the tasks of fighting crime in all its manifestations. “
“This has been a claim of the people for many years. Prior to my election as Representative, I attended this case in a way, given the public controversy over the assignment of bodyguards to former Governor Ricardo Rosselló. We argue that he did not meet the requirements to be classified as a former governor by not completing his tenure as president, and therefore he was a private individual with no right to police escort. In answering the question, however, the police station leadership argued that the proposals became academic because former governor Wanda Vázquez had withdrawn the service of bodyguards from Rosselló Nevares’ family. Given this reality, it is convenient that the bodyguards of former governors are revoked by law, ”said Aponte Rosario.
Aponte Rosario’s measure, to which a number will be assigned as soon as it is submitted to the Secretary of the House of Representatives, is aimed at Article 6 of Law Number 2 of March 26, 1965, as amended, known as’ Ley to a grant annuity and other facilities to ex-governors ”, to clarify the rights or benefits that a former governor will have, to establish that he will not enjoy the benefits if he decides to step down from office and to Amend law number 20 of April 10, 2017 to eliminate the police commissioner’s discretion to escort a former civil servant.
Currently, former Governors Carlos Romero Barceló, Luis Fortuño Burset, Alejandro García Padilla and Wanda Vázquez have assigned Garced bodyguards, while Sila M. Calderón Serra and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá have waived that right.
Aponte Rosario’s measure finds that “this legislature recognizes the austerity, economic hardship and fiscal crisis that the government of Puerto Rico has been through, and therefore the duty to reduce non-essential expenditures in order to divert them is expressly laid down as public policy. to essential services directly to the citizen.