PDP Turns to Free Association By EVA LLORENS VELEZ Following last week’s status hearing in the Senate, the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) is now faced with the challenge of selling the idea of a free associated state or sovereign commonwealth to supporters. “There are a lot of lawmakers, mayors and PDP officials who are not afraid of speaking out about a pact of free association,” said one PDP official who wished to remain anonymous. “I think most people are in favor of either integration or some form of sovereign association with the United States. There are problems that have to be dealt with, such as what will happen with U.S. citizenship, but I think that can be negotiated.” Citizens of Palau and the Marshall Islands, which have pacts of free association with the United States, are not inherently U.S. citizens. Last week the head of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Ron Wyden, told Gov. Alejandro García Padilla that the so-called “new commonwealth,” the idea that the self-governing powers of the current commonwealth status can be enhanced under the plenary powers of Congress, was not constitutionally viable. “The ‘New Commonwealth’ option continues to be advocated as a viable option by some. It is not,” said Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. “Persistence in supporting this option after it has been rejected as inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution by the U.S. Justice Department, by the bipartisan leadership of this Committee, by the House, and by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, undermines resolution of Puerto Rico’s status question.” In Wyden’s opinion, voters rejected the current territory status in the Nov. 6, 2012 status vote, leaving Puerto Rico with only two options: statehood under U.S. sovereignty, or some form of separate national sovereignty. The enhanced commonwealth, which was also rejected by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has been advocated by some factions of the PDP in favor of expanding the commonwealth’s self-governing powers within the territorial clause. García Padilla told the Senate panel that U.S. Supreme Court rulings allow Congress to modify the degree of autonomy under the commonwealth status. But with his “new commonwealth” option seeming to have hit a wall in the U.S. Senate, García Padilla is going to have to embrace the “liberal wing” of the PDP that he has previously described as “feathers.” The liberal wing often advocates the evolution of the current commonwealth status into a freely associated state of increased autonomy from the U.S. “The only evolution of the commonwealth that can fly is the sovereign one, which is the non-colonial commonwealth outside the territorial clause,” PDP Rep. Luis Vega Ramos told the Star. Vega Ramos said the governor told him that he wants to talk to the group that supports the sovereign commonwealth and “leave any dispute behind.” He said the governor understands that the only manner in which the commonwealth status can evolve is as a non-territorial, non-colonial status. Vega Ramos said that in any future vote, the ballot should include free association as an option, which is similar to the sovereign commonwealth. “We have to call it a freely associated state,” he said. How are you going to convince voters to vote for a free associated state, which in the minds of voters is the same as independence and is not a sovereign commonwealth? the Star asked. “We have to work on that,” said Vega Ramos, noting that freely associated state is the literal translation of commonwealth in Spanish. The concept of a non-territorial, non-colonial commonwealth as the evolution of the current status was first born in 1990 in what was known as the Vizcarrondo amendment, proposed by former PDP Rep. Carlos Vizcarrondo, who is now an Appeals Court judge. According to the amendment, the “new commonwealth” should grow outside the territorial clause. The idea was placed in the PDP platforms for 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. Over the years, members of the PDP have advocated a non-territorial, non-colonial association that contains a common citizenship, common market and defense and will allow the island to enter trade treaties with other countries. Former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá called on supporters to rally behind the so-called sovereign commonwealth. In 2010, Sen. Antonio Fas Alzamora proposed what he called the Association Pact, which proposes a non-territorial and non-colonial status that would acknowledge Puerto Rico’s sovereignty. PDP Sen. Cirilo Tirado, who supports the sovereign commonwealth, has called for a meeting of the PDP to discuss the different ideologies around the commonwealth. Meanwhile, a member of the Senate panel, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), noted that Puerto Ricans are more concerned about job creation and the economy than about status. Puerto Rico #PDP #Status
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 20:04:27 +0000