The new representative for District 26 (Barranquitas, Orocovis, Villalba and Coamo), Orlando Aponte Rosario, will file a measure on Monday to repeal the compulsory escorts of the former governors of Puerto Rico, he said, for “the fiscal crisis in the country and to concentrate the efforts of the Police Negotiator on the tasks of combating crime in all its manifestations “.
“This has been a claim of the town for many years. Prior to my election as representative, I addressed this case in particular, in the face of public controversy over the allocation of escorts to former governor Ricardo Rosselló. argue that he did not meet the requirements to qualify as a former governor by not completing his term as president, so that he was a private person without the right to police escort.However, in answering the lawsuit, the management of the Negotiated of the Police argued that the approaches became academic because the ex- governor Wanda Vázquez had retired the service to him of escorts to the family of Rosselló Nevares.In front of this reality, the advisable thing is the repeal of escorts the former governors, through a law, “Aponte Rosari said.
The Aponte Rosario measure, which will be assigned a number as soon as it is established in the Secretariat of the House of Representatives, seeks to amend Articles 6 of Law Number 2 of March 26, 1965, as amended, known as to “Law to Grant a Life Annuity and Other Facilities to Ex-Governors”, for the purpose of clarifying the rights or benefits that a former Governor shall hold, to establish that he shall not enjoy the benefits if he decides to resign and to amend Act No. 20 of April 10, 2017 to remove the discretion of the Commissioner of Police to provide escorts to a former officer.
Currently, former governors Carlos Romero Barceló, Luis Fortuño Burset, Alejandro García Padilla and Wanda Vázquez Garced have escorts assigned while Sila M. Calderón Serra and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá have relinquished this right.
Aponte Rosario’s measure states that “this Legislative Assembly recognizes the austerity, economic hardship and fiscal crisis that the government of Puerto Rico has gone through, so it is expressly established as a public policy the duty of reduce non-essential expenses to redirect to essential services directly to citizens.