Rafael “Tatito” Hernández proposes to repeal the projects for the state signed by Wanda Vázquez

Washington dc.- The delegation of the Democratic People’s Party (PPD) in the House of Representatives has proposed repealing laws 167 and 165 of December 30, 2020 which promote, respectively, elect six intriguing statesmen and leave in the hands of the governor the call to another plebiscite.

“We will exhaust the legislative remedies before going to (challenge) in the courts”, Said Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez Montañez, who will be nominated on Monday, at the beginning of the session, as chairman of the House of Representatives.

The bill presented this afternoon by the representatives of the PPD in the Puerto Rican lower house also seeks to eliminate the 2017 law created by the Equality Commission.

On the one hand, law 167 – which would allow the election on May 16 of six “special delegates” to Congress whose sole function will be to lobby for the state – “mixes the prerogatives of a legislator with those of the executive,” he said. hold Hernández Montañez.

In addition, the legislature questioned, among other things, the requirement that the law imposes on these delegates to master both English and Spanish, which excludes “at least 70% of the population,” and the power that it gives the government to dismiss an elected official if it does not commit to promoting statehood for the island.

By federal law, the Washington-resident commissioner is required to be proficient in English, but no Puerto Rican government official is required to do so. Law 167 proposes to choose intriguing 06:00 of the estadidad like special delegates to Congress, four assigned to press in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate.

Although the measure was presented today, its consideration will have to wait until next week when the new session of the Puerto Rico Legislature begins.

Law 165, on the other hand, leaves it in the hands of the governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia convene a new plebiscite. Pierluisi, by executive order, could define the alternatives for the state to present at a consultation and choose when to hold it.

Laws 165 and 167 were passed in a special post-election session and signed last December 30 by then-Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, in response to the New Progressive Party (PNP) to the Creole plebiscite on November 3 in that the stage obtained 52.5% of the votes.

“They knew they had lost control of the Legislative Assembly for the four-year period 2021-2024, making our system similar to a dictatorship,” indicates the legislation of the PPD in the House.

Hernández Montañez, on the other hand, agreed with the management of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico to present the project of this group in favor of a Constitutional Assembly of Status.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from the Puerto Rican Independentist Party (PIP), Senator de Lourdes Santiago and Rep. Dennis Márquez, tabled resolutions to create a special commission tasked with recommending legislation leading to an “Assembly for to Decolonization “.

PPP and PIP state measures would require the approval of Governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia or two-thirds of support in both chambers to go beyond a potential veto. Although the PPD has an absolute majority in the House of Representatives, it has a simple majority of 12, out of 27, senators

PNP representative José Aponte has ruled out that his colleagues may support some kind of convocation in favor of a status assembly. “There is a democratic mandate for the status quo and we will enforce that will of our people. This status convention initiative is completely ruled out,” said Aponte, who was president of the lower house.