New chamber president pledges to revise the Civil Code and the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States

The incoming president of the House of Representatives, Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez, Has pledged today to facilitate the presentation and discussion of various legislative proposals aimed at making viable the holding of a Constitutional Assembly of Status and address the concerns and shortcomings of the new Civil Code approved in June.

Hernandez met today with the president of the Bar Association, Daisy Calcaño López, Meeting in which they agreed to file a bill, the draft was prepared by the agency, to address the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States “In collaboration with the Bar Association other meetings will be scheduled with the other parliamentary delegations to explain the content of this project. The House of Representatives will be a facilitator to undertake an education process with the Bar Association, “said the new chamberlain leader.

If the proposed measure is approved, it would order a referendum to allow the country to authorize or reject the holding of a Constitutional Status Assembly as a procedural mechanism to review relations between Puerto Rico and the United States. “We understand that it is the best way for the people to express themselves with a representation of all the country’s electoral currents,” Calcaño López pointed out that there is a commitment from the new majority of the Democratic People’s Party (PPD) in the House of Representatives to present the measure to the plenary. If so, he said, they would initiate a process of education in the village.

For more than a decade, the body that brings together the country’s lawyers has promoted the holding of a Status Constitutional Assembly. The draft, explained López Calcaño, has undergone some modifications that have been worked through the Commission of Constitutional Development, chaired by the ex-president of the Bar Association, Alejandro Torres Rivera. “If this is presented we will be holding forums across the island in plain language, in rice and beans, because we understand that there is a lot of misinformation and fear,” he said. point out Calcaño López.

The meeting, which lasted more than an hour and a half, was also attended by the Vice President of the Chamber, Josep “Conny” Varela, Who also chairs the Committee on Constitutional and Electoral Amendments; the representative Kebin Maldonado Martiz, Who took over the leadership of the Federal, International, Status and Veterans Affairs Committee; and the representative and chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Orlando José Aponte Rosari.

“All sectors are seeking a democratic and transparent exercise that includes all ideologies in a fair and equitable manner. That is, they feel represented in a non-biased process so that it has credibility before the country and the United States Congress,” he said. said, for his part, Maldonado Martiz.

As part of the meeting, Calcaño López indicated that they also delivered a 26-page document with some of the amendments urgently required by the Civil Code signed in June by the former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced. “There are some good things, but there are some mistakes that are worrying and we think that the people need to have an adequate and temperate Civil Code,” said López Calcaño.

Among the amendments proposed by the College, is to define surrogacy, restore the doctrine of equity and revisit Article 107 which addresses the issue of the validity of legal acts that can make a child between 18 and 21 years. “This article should be reviewed immediately and possibly repealed because it does not limit the legal acts of minors between these ages, we specify them,” urged Calcaño López.

López Calcaño also stressed the urgency of looking at the Article 694 on modification of name and sex in the marriage certificate, since as detailed, the procedure “may violate the person’s right to privacy and may be discriminatory.” “We could have had a better Code, not as it was presented, in a flawed process, fixed behind closed doors,” he noted.

He argued that, in addition, it is necessary to look at the area of ​​the right to alimony of older children pursuing professional or vocational studies, as well as the provision of obligations that establishes that creditors can carry out debt collection procedures, for example, without the need to interpellate a lawsuit, “Which is very dangerous.” Another area to observe is Article 6.86 which excluded legal representatives as legitimate to apply for certifications in the Demographic Register. “This makes part of our management more expensive in practice,” he detailed.

In Article 615, the lawyer added, they suggest eliminating “involuntary manslaughter” as one of the causes for deprivation of parental authority. Involuntary manslaughter is not intentional conduct and sometimes does not result in imprisonment, he explained. “This crime is inconsequential and should not be here,” López Calcaño said, adding that they have also suggested that consideration be given to the fact that no motor vehicle is subject to this, unless it is a collector’s item or antic.

Regarding the amendments to the Civil Code, Hernández indicated in writing that a resolution will be drafted that contains and evaluates the most important points of the proposed amendments, so that the opinion of the sectors with interference can be heard. This process will be in the hands of Aponte Rosario.

“There are different sectors of the country committed to working on issues of legal relevance, such as the Civil Code, constitutional amendments and the Constituent Assembly as a tool to present our people with a solution to the issue of political status. “This is a hopeful start and it definitely motivates me to do the work that all Puerto Ricans are waiting for,” said Aponte Rosari.