Intense pulsation for the vacancy in the Supreme Court

The way to fill the vacancy left by Judge Anabelle Rodríguez al Supreme Court seem to be flattened yesterday, when the Senate granted a second round to the bat to nine of the 27 appointments made by the governor Wanda Vázquez Garced which he had rejected last week.

Negotiations between the upper house and the executive are aimed at getting a woman to occupy the chair that Rodríguez will leave when she reaches retirement age, as sources have indicated that she wanted the president. But it will not be Court of Appeal Judge Maritere Brignoni, Vázquez Garced’s first choice.

“She is hanging. She has 13 votes against,” a source in the media said of Brignoni, who would need 16 votes to be confirmed.

The New Day learned that the alternate candidate for the Supreme Court has already been elected and will be confirmed by the Senate majority of the New Progressive Party (PNP).

In return, yesterday the Senate endorsed three assistant prosecutors, a district attorney, a Family Affairs Attorney and four members on the Medical Licensing and Discipline Board appointed by the chief executive.

For some members of the minority, the action of the senatorial majority not only evidences “improvisation”, but was the result of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Legislative Assembly and La Fortalesa for the disputed charges.

“Obviously, it is a reflection that they were not rejected for their merits, but for a push for power with La Fortalesa. This absurd spectacle 15 days after the end of the four-year period is absurd,” said popular spokesman in the Senate, Eduardo Bhatia.

The senator of the Puerto Rican Independentist Party, Joan Dalmau, has pointed out that the action of the Pépé majority undermines the credentials they may have for the post.

“This doesn’t do a good service to these officials because it gives the impression that they are screwing them, when they probably have the merits, but we will not know why we do not have the elements of judgment,” he noted.

Popular Senator Cirilo Tirado said the uprising was a “paper.”

“Playing with appointments in exchange for some kind of petition seems to me to be not fair for those who hung up and for others in the future,” Tirado exposed.

intense lobbying

Brignoni did not get the 16 votes needed for a future confirmation in the Supreme Court, although the former Secretary of Public Affairs Ramon Rosario and the former campaign manager of the elected governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, the lawyer Leo Díaz, went to be lobbying between the novoprogresistas legislators, has indicated a source.

On Thursday, Pierluisi denied that there was a consultation process between him and Vázquez Garced, but he did acknowledge that there was communication between them on the issue.

“This is not really a consultation process, unless we have communication. The decision is hers,” Pierluisi acknowledged.

The New Day learned that the legislators who favored Brignoni for the Supreme are: Miguel Romero, William Villafañe, Migdalia Padilla, Luis Daniel Muñiz, Miguel Laureano, Carlos Rodríguez Mateu, Axel “Chinese” Roc and Henry Neumann.

On the loose, there is also Vázquez Garced’s candidate for the Office of the Comptroller, Gerardo Rodríguez.

Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz favors Senate Secretary-General Manuel A. Torres for the Office of the Comptroller. In fact, during a caucus yesterday, the PNP delegation passed a resolution in support of Torres.

The Senate receded until December 26, but Rivera Schatz stressed that the right to convene the body was reserved before that date.

“If there is a need to attend to any appointments, we are ready to do so. We may convene this coming Saturday (morning),” he warned.