Face of Nation : For the first time in seven decades, an unelected governor is in charge of Puerto Rico. Pedro Pierluisi was sworn in during a private ceremony as the island’s new governor seconds after embattled Gov.Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation became effective Friday at 5 p.m. Both the incoming and departing governor said in written statements that Pierluisi became governor within Puerto Rico’s legal and constitutional framework.
Pierluisi said in a statement that “he was sworn in as the Governor of Puerto Rico in accordance to Section 7 and Article 4 of Puerto Rico’s Constitution.”He clarified that he will remain in the post until the next election only if the Senate ratifies him as governor; they meet on Monday. If not, he would resign.
The Puerto Rico Bar Association said in a written statement that since “the legitimacy of the newly sworn in [governor] is in question,” they are looking into “the necessary procedures to initiate a judicial process to challenge” Pierluisi’s oath as governor. “Laws cannot deviate from constitutional postulates, the intention of the Constitution’s authors and the current situation,” the organization wrote. Pierluisi cited a part of the Puerto Rican constitution that explains what’s supposed to happen if “a vacancy in the governor’s seat occurs.“
It establishes two key rules: The island’s secretary of state should be become the new governor and if the positions of Governor and Secretary of State are simultaneously vacant, “the law will determine which of the Secretaries of Government will occupy the position of Governor.“
Rosselló had chosen Pierluisi to fill the secretary of state vacancy left by Luis G. Rivera Marín, who resigned last month over his involvement in the chat scandal that led to Rosselló’s ouster. An hour before Rosselló was set to officially resign, Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives confirmed Pierluisi’s nomination as secretary of state after a lengthy hearing Friday. Others insist that Pierluisi needed the approval of both the House and the Senate in order to become a legitimate secretary of state who could be sworn in as Puerto Rico’s governor.
Rep. Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of Congress, is one of them. González is one of the authors of the law that determines who becomes Puerto Rico’s governor if both positions, governor and secretary of state, are vacant at the same time.
The law she helped write in 2005 says that “a Secretary or Secretary must occupy his position in property” in order to step up as the governor, suggesting that Pierluisi should have been confirmed by both the House and the Senate. “The constitution is the document before which our rulers, legislators and judges are sworn in. It is imperative that we cling to it to preserve it; ignorance of the power of the Constitution is an act that causes great concern, particularly in these historic moments in which we live in Puerto Rico,” the ACLU said in a statement.
