The legal action, which involves the Ministers of Economic Development, Manuel Cidre, and of Transport and Public Works, Eileen Vélez, comes after the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, Yesmín Valdivieso, confirmed by letter a complaint that the PPD had filed with her office.
The Secretary General of the PPD, Gerardo Cruz, stated: “Given the inaction of the office responsible for supervising the disbursement of public funds, that is, the Comptroller of Puerto Rico, we have decided to file a lawsuit.”
He explained that the aim was to stop the publication of political advertising disguised as a public service and containing the phrase “making things happen”, which is in violation of Article 13 of the Political Campaign Financing Law.
Cruz recalled that the 2020 election campaign of the annexationist New Progressive Party (PNP), Governor Pierluisi and Washington-based Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón included the refrain: “I will make things happen.”
A few weeks ago, in a letter to the PPD’s electoral commissioner, Karla Angleró, Auditor Valdivieso acknowledged that “in the given situation, the expression ‘make things happen’ complements the expression ‘I will make things happen’.”
“There was a change in the tenses of the verbs, but the essence of both is the same. Although not the same motto, it can be deduced from a holistic analysis that the intent of the phrase “make things happen” is to highlight the fulfillment of a party political promise – “I will make things happen” – as an achievement Future,” he emphasized.
The PPD’s statement of claim states that over the past six months, the government of Puerto Rico has spent at least more than $3 million in public funds on a mass media political campaign whose sole purpose was to highlight and promote political aspirations promote the re-election of Governor Pierluisi in the next general elections scheduled for November 2024.
“It is inconceivable that, despite our statement a few weeks ago, the agency secretaries’ practice of planning these political advertisements with public funds continues; Likewise, we are surprised that the comptroller affirms our approach but decides to wait until another agency completes its investigation,” Cruz added.
In the appeal, the Popular Party notes that Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court had to stop a campaign by Gov. Pedro Rosselló in 1995, which was approved by then-Attorney General Pierluisi.
“The government of Pedro Pierluisi is adopting exactly the same customs as the government of Pedro Rosselló. Well, more than 20 years ago, as attorney general, he allowed $70 million to be misspent as part of the Commitment Fulfilled campaign.
A court condemned the action as an unconstitutional waste of public money, and today as governor he is doing exactly the same thing, he noted.
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