Jaime Perell- Borrás resigned as president of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Monday afternoon, according to local press accounts.
Perell- Borrás announced his resignation in a speech in San Juan, according to El Vocero. The upheaval in the island's government comes as a new U.S. law is being enacted to put its fiscal affairs and the restructuring of about $70 billion of public debt under the oversight of a Federal control board
On Thursday Popular Democratic Party Gubernatorial Candidate David Bernier called on Perell- Borrás to resign the presidency. Perell- Borrás is a member of the PDP and Bernier is president of the party. Puerto Rico will vote for a new governor in November.
Bernier's pressure on Perell- Borrás grew this weekend. On Saturday he convened the leadership council of the Popular Democratic Party to discuss Perell- Borrás stepping down from his House presidency. The council voted 15 in favor and four abstaining on a motion in favor of the representative leaving the presidency, according to the El Vocero news web site. The council didn't have the power to force Perell- Borrás from his position.
On Sunday Perell- Borrás responded by resigning the administrative duties of his presidency, while retaining his legislative leadership. The administrative resignation was to be effective for the length of a trial of defendants in a case related to Anaudi Hernández Pérez, who has pled guilty to corruption charges.
Puerto Rico House of Representatives vice president Roberto Rivera Ruiz de Porras would have taken the administrative leadership during this time.
Bernier had threatened to resign his candidacy for governor unless Perell- Borrás resigned his presidency. After Perell- Borrás' actions transferring his administrative leadership on Sunday Bernier insisted that the House president had to resign all of his duties as president.
Among those charged in the Hernández Pérez case were three important staff members in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives. El Vocero cited "rumors" that Perell- Borrás had unfairly intervened to award a contract to a company associated with Hernández Pérez.
At his resignation Monday Perell- Borrás denied he had committed any illegal acts. Rivera Ruiz will serve as president of the House for the moment. The PDP members in House could vote to replace him or he could serve until a new legislature is seated at the start of 2017.
