The new representative for District 26 (Barranquitas, Orocovis, Villalba and Coamo), Orlando Aponte Rosario, will today table a measure to repeal compulsory escorts to former Puerto Rican governors, as he said, due to the “fiscal crisis in the country and focus the efforts of the Police Office in the fight against crime in all its manifestations. “
“It simply came to our notice then. Prior to my election as representative, I participated in this case in a special way, given the public controversy over the distribution of bodyguards to former Governor Ricardo Rosselló. We claim that he did not meet the requirements to be classified as a former governor by the fact that he did not complete his term as president, which is why he was a private person without the right to a police escort. However, when responding to the request, the Police Bureau claimed that the proposals had become academic, as former Governor Wanda Vázquez withdrew the bodyguard service from the Rosselló Nevares family. Given this reality, it is convenient to repeal the bodyguards for former governors by a law, “said Aponte Rosario.
The Aponte Rosario measure, to which a number will be assigned as soon as it is submitted to the secretary of the House of Representatives, aims to amend articles 6 of Law no. 2 of March 26, 1965, as amended, known as the “Ley to grant a life annuity and other facilities to former governors”, in order to clarify the rights or benefits that a former governor will have, in order to establish that will not enjoy benefits if he decides to resign and amend Law No. 20 of April 10, 2017 to remove the discretion of the police commissioner to provide escorts to a former official.
Former governors Carlos Romero Barceló, Luis Fortuño Burset, Alejandro García Padilla and Wanda Vázquez Garced have now appointed bodyguards, while Sila M. Calderón Serra and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá have relinquished this right.
The Aponte Rosario measure states that “this legislature recognizes the austerity, economic difficulties and fiscal crisis that the Puerto Rican government has suffered, which is why it has a duty to reduce non-essential expenditures for redirection to essential services directly to citizens.