San Juan, Puerto Rico – Tainted with a legacy of corruption, the New Progressive Party (Partido Nuevo Progresita, a.ka. PNP for their Spanish translation) makes a bold move to approve last minute legislation on Christmas Eve to control the generation of power in Puerto Rico. Submitting last minute bills during a major holiday is a typical move when a leading political party wishes to get their way while having the least possible scrutiny from the public and opposing parties.
The representative of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), Denis Márquez Lebrón, denounced on Thursday the filing, at the last minute, of a legislative measure that would create private monopolies in the Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and exclude the next Assembly Legislative of the energy process, appropriating multiple appointments in various Boards and Committees of public entities.
“In a politically barbaric action, yesterday La Fortaleza (reference to the Governor’s office) amended the extraordinary session to include, behind the backs of the people and rapid approval this Saturday, bill 2627 that relaxes the requirements of the law to avoid private monopolies in power generation and takes away from the upcoming Legislature, various appointments to Boards and Committees with the deliberate intention of controlling them. It is the ‘Christmas bonus’ to say goodbye to La Fortaleza and the current legislative majority to the country, to continue governing with the vision – already rejected by the people – of a ‘total banquet’ and further politicizing the determinations of Puerto Rico’s energy process,” he said Márquez Lebrón in written communication.
He added that he already maintains communication with various groups and citizens in relation to the legislative piece that would allow, as he explained, politicized appointments in the Boards and Committees of the APP, AAFAF and the Incentive Code.
Regarding the creation of monopolies denounced by Márquez Lebrón, he specified that the project allows that what is not sold can be transferred to a single company and stated, as an example, that if PREPA sells only one plant, it could delegate the operation and maintenance of the rest of the plants to a single company.
“To make matters worse, they take away from the Bureau the power to determine if a monopoly is constituted, disabling the entity’s supervisory authority to protect Puerto Rico from the energy monopoly. This Saturday I will be fighting from the hemicycle this ‘Christmas assault’ of the PNP that seems to have not understood the forceful message of the country in the elections,” he said.
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