Pierluisi Welcomes, Rosselló Denounces Call for United Front Against Financial Board

SAN JUAN – The president of the New Progressive Party (NPP), Pedro Pierluisi, welcomed Gov. Alejandro García Padilla’s announcement that he will convene a meeting with the island’s candidates for governor to unite in rejecting the Republican-proposed financial oversight board.

García Padilla said this weekend that “Puerto Ricans must present a united opposition to a financial control board that deprives the country of its own government.”

In a statement Sunday,Pierluisi said, “As resident commissioner, I have always been more than willing to meet with anyone who wants and can contribute to solving the problems our people face. Although I would have preferred to avoid discussing the congressional legislation in a political context, I understand we are living in dramatic times.” 

An aspiring candidate for governor for the NPP, Pierluisi said he is “working tirelessly with the legislation Congress is about to consider to help the island out of the current financial and economic crisis, and I am willing to discuss the details and exchange views with anyone who shares the commitment to put Puerto Rico first.”

From left, Ricardo Rosselló and Pedro Pierluisi

The other gubernatorial hopeful from the NPP, Ricardo Rosselló, said Sunday that “the commonwealth’s financial crisis is not solved calling for a united front” and reiterated he does not want to create the false premise that he agrees with the governor’s position. “There are others who do not see that the source of the problem is [Puerto Rico’s] status and the absence of integrated public policies to promote economic development,” he stated.

Rosselló added he was the first to propose a board and that “some of our pillars are there, but as presented, this measure is unacceptable for Puerto Rico.”

“It is unfortunate that while the governor, David Bernier and Pedro Pierluisi himself focus on taking Puerto Rico toward Chapter 9 and not on addressing our proposal, now they have to scurry at the last minute,” Rosselló said.

In his statement, Rosselló also recalled he had requested long ago that the island’s political leaders discuss the matter and affirmed that “the commonwealth’s financial crisis won’t be solved by calling for a united front or making common cause with those responsible for aggravating this situation to the point of driving the government toward bankruptcy.”

The politician reiterated his position that any legislative action in Congress should be linked to a decolonization process and aimed at the admission of Puerto Rico as a State of the Union, as most of Puerto Ricans voted for, he said. “That is the safe and definitive way out of the government’s financial and Puerto Rico’s economic crises.”

Rosselló was emphatic in pointing out that “whoever makes common cause with García Padilla and Bernier in this matter will only contribute to aggravating the crisis and would pull Puerto Rico farther from the ultimate solution to this problem: achieving equality through statehood.”

Inter News Service contributed to this report.

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