Senate Approves Report Calling For Constitutional Assembly

[Ecuajey]

Senate Approves Report Calling For Constitutional Assembly

By Proviana Colon Diaz

April 23rd, 2002
Copyright © 2002 WOW News.
All rights reserved.

Following an extensive debate late Monday, the Senate approved a Judiciary Committee report in favor of calling for a Constitutional Assembly as one of the possible alternatives for solving the island’s status issue.

The report was finally approved with the expected votes from the members of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) majority, and Puerto Rican Independence Party Sen. Fernando Martin.

Although Judiciary Committee Chairman Eudaldo Baez Galib tried once again to explain that the approval of the report did not mean that a people’s assembly would be used to solve the status issue, but it is simply one of the options that could be used to resolve the matter, his argument did not convince six of the eight members of the New Progressive Party (NPP) delegation.

Senate NPP Alternate Leader Orlando Parga began his turn to debate apparently in favor of the report.

"After being born, raised, and currently living in a colony, I don’t rule out any mechanism that leads to a possible status solution, and I agree that we don’t have to ask Washington for permission," Parga said.

The senator, however, changed his speech radically and dedicated the rest of his debate to criticizing the PDP’s history in regards to the status issue. Parga, as well as Minority Leader Kenneth McClintock and fellow Sens. Lucy Arce, Migdalia Padilla, Miriam Ramirez de Ferrer, and Pablo Lafontaine, voted against the report.

McClintock described the mechanism of a people’s assembly as an "elite" measure that will leave the island status decision at the hands of a few.

His argument was the only one raised by the minority to receive an answer by Baez Galib, who argued that McClintock’s premise was wrong, on the contrary, people from all political ideologies would form the assembly.

Martin also agreed with Baez Galib on the subject.

"The mechanism of a Constitutional Assembly grants equality and assures a negotiation with U.S. Congress," Martin said.

Meanwhile, Burgos used her debate turn to criticize the members of the delegation voting against the report.

"As pro-statehood, I want the status issue to be solved now. I don’t know what my peers’ fears are. Maybe their fear is that the United States is not willing to grant us statehood," Burgos said.