To our audience: The new day offers you free access to its news coverage related to COVID-19. If you want to support our mission of providing you with true, relevant and useful information now and after the emergency, we urge you to subscribe to subscriptions.elnuevodia.com.
The president of the House of Representatives, Carlos “Johnny” Méndez, will not relieve the representative Juan Oscar Morales Rodríguez of his functions in the Health Commission investigating irregular purchases of evidence from COVID-19 in the Health Department.
Méndez did not accept the request that the PPD minority spokesman, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández, made in a letter highlighting a conflict of interest on the part of Morales Rodríguez.
“The commission chaired by comrade Juan Oscar Morales Rodríguez has acted with the prudence and rigor necessary to give the people confidence in their government or the certainty that corruption will not go unpunished. Representative Morales Rodríguez has all my confidence and will remain in office“, emphasized Méndez in written communication.
Hernández acted after unsuccessfully requesting this morning in the Commission itself that Morales Rodríguez be inhibited from the process after Dr. Segundo Rodríguez Quilichini revealed in a letter that Morales Rodríguez himself had referred a company to the task force for the possible purchase of Covid-19 tests.
Hernández stated that this fact, which Morales did not refute, constituted a conflict of interest for the legislator.
“One of the core issues that has arisen in these public hearings is precisely those referred to by Dr. Segundo Rodríguez, of which the Commission is investigating its scope,” the letter reads.
Letter from Rafael “Tatit … by El Nuevo Día on Scribd
Morales Rodríguez has rejected that it is a conflict of interest and has made his email and telephone available to local and federal authorities.
In a letter to Méndez, Hernández indicated, on behalf of his fellow delegates Lydia Méndez, Ramón Luis Cruz Burgos and Jesús Manuel Ortiz, to relieve Morales Rodríguez while the investigation is being carried out and that the investigation refer to the Special Commission for the Total Preparation of Puerto Rico before an emergency.
Hernández empowered his argument that Morales Rodríguez violated a subsection of the House Code of Ethics that states that all representatives must abstain from participating in any aspect of the legislative procedures when dealing with a matter in which a conflict of interest arises or arises. interest. He added that it is the president of the legislative body who has to make that determination.
– .
