Governor defends law to restructure public-corporation debt

On June 25, 2014, Primera Hora reported that Governor Alejandro García Padilla defended the proposed Law for Compliance with Debts and for the Recovery of Public Corporations — popularly called “homegrown bankruptcy” — and denied that it equals a creole bankruptcy statute or privatization.

“It is not a bankruptcy law. It is not a law that proposes privatization. Our corporations remain public and must remain public,” he said at La Fortaleza, accompanied by Ingrid Vila, Melba Acosta, David Chaffey (GDB) and Jim Millstein.

García Padilla put public-corporation debt at about $26,000 million. The GDB president broke it down: PREPA near $10,000 million; Highway Authority $7,000 million; PRASA around $4,500 million. The measure would apply only after financial options are exhausted and payment cannot be made; if it reaches a court, an “administrator” — not a trustee — would run the process, without liquidating the corporation.

He acknowledged that the proposal embraces the Fiscal Sustainability Law (frozen agreements / renegotiation of awards) and said the government had agreed with “more than 70 percent” of central-government unions. La Fortaleza sent the measure that same day; the ordinary session expired June 30.

A proposed/defended bill is not a federal judgment. Public-corporation debt ≠ adjudicated theft.

Source: Primera Hora. https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/gobierno-politica/notas/gobernador-defiende-ley-para-reestructurar-deuda-de-corporaciones-publicas/