Marine Diver. The San Juan Daily Star. Monday, October 5, Self-winding movement. Water-resistant to 300m.

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1 2 Marine Diver Self-winding movement. Water-resistant to 300m. 18 ct rose gold case. Also available in stainless steel. U LY S S E - N A R D I N. C O M The San Juan Daily Star

2 GOOD MORNING The San Juan Daily Star, the only paper with 3 October 5, 2015 News Service in English in Puerto Rico, publishes 7 days a week, with a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday edi on, along with a Weekend Edi on to cover Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mayors, GDB Dueling in Court Over $400 Million Held by CRIM By EVA LLORENS VELEZ llorenseva4@gmail.com Local Mainland Business Interna onal Viewpoint Entertainment INDEX No cias en Español Legal No ces Sports Games Horoscope Cartoons Island mayors and the Government Development Bank have sued each other. The Government Development Bank (GDB) went to court last week seeking $400 million in local property tax revenue it said was being illegally held by the Municipal Revenue Collections Center (CRIM by its Spanish acronym). Meanwhile, the CRIM recently filed a request for a mandamus to obtain a court order that would force the GDB to place money collected through the additional property surtax in a trust fund. Comerio Mayor José A. Santiago told the STAR that the lawsuit has the support of the Mayors Association and the Mayors Federation, which group Popular Democratic Party and New Progressive Party mayors, respectively, because if the GDB, which has liquidity problems, collapses or the government shuts down, then the municipalities are at risk of losing funds. The GDB, meanwhile, sued the CRIM seeking the $400 million it has, noting that it was crucial to the central government bank s ability to make coming payments to bondholders. The CRIM appears to have the $400 million in hand but its board decided in June not to release the money to the GDB. The GDB, which handles Puerto Rico s borrowing and cash flows, said the move was illegal and asked the Superior Court in San Juan to require the agency to turn over the money. José A. Santiago Through this illegal action, the CRIM is putting the finances of all municipalities in danger, and likely exposing them to claims from their creditors, the GDB s chief operating officer, Karolee García Figueroa, told the New York Times. CRIM Executive Director Víctor Falcón said the mayors are demanding that the GDB sign the documents for the trust fund as established by Law 80. The GDB has refused to sign the documents. We have an order from the [CRIM] board not to deposit the property tax fees in the bank, Falcón said.

3 4 The San Juan Daily Star PR s Top Cop Vows to Fight Corruption Amid Mounting Accusations of Abuse By DANICA COTO Already undergoing federally mandated reform, Puerto Rico s police department faces an overhaul after a new wave of arrests in an agency widely accused of corruption and other abuses. The restructuring was announced after FBI agents arrested 10 police officers last Tuesday for allegedly stealing drugs and cash, planting evidence and taking bribes. A lieutenant and sergeant were among those detained in the latest round of arrests targeting the island s troubled police department. Commonwealth Police Superintendent José Caldero said that among other things he would reorganize anti-drug units and require polygraph tests for officers. We will clean house, he said. We will not tolerate corruption. Authorities already had said they have hired consultants, trained officers on the use of force and appointed a monitor as part of a 10-year reform effort ordered by Washington after the U.S. government issued a scathing report in 2011 accusing police of illegal killings, corruption and civil rights violations. Critics questioned whether the department can root out the problems on its own as the FBI warned that more arrests were likely. The police department obviously is not capable of cleaning its own house because it s the FBI making the arrests, said William Ramírez, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico. We re putting out fires all the time. We get a lot of complaints. Puerto Rico s police department is the second largest in a U.S. jurisdiction, and more than 100 officers have been arrested over the past five years on corruption charges. Lawyers and activists say many more are never prosecuted. The corruption has frustrated many Puerto Ricans, leading some like Xiomara Rivera to videotape suspected cases of police abuse only to end up in trouble with authorities. The pregnant mother of two young children used her cellphone in August to record an exchange between police officers and her neighbor, a retired officer himself who denounced the other officers for allegedly using a Taser on a young man, she said. After police arrested the retired officer following a verbal fight, Rivera said, they surrounded her, drew their Taser and snatched her phone. They told me, If you don t give us your phone, we ll shoot you, she said. Rivera filed a complaint, saying her phone s contents were deleted before it was returned to her. FBI agents have interviewed Rivera, but the case has not been resolved. Noting such cases, Ramírez and other activists are pushing for an independent agency with civilian oversight to handle complaints against police, but a bill calling for that change has remained shelved in committee. Critics say the reform process has been slow and incomplete, and police officials concede they have struggled to resolve a large backlog of civilian complaints. Among those who waited months for their case against police to be resolved is Juan Carlos Rodríguez, a department store employee. He said he was on a terrace looking at his phone last year as police nearby scuffled with two young men in the northern town of Naranjito. He said police accused him of recording them then grabbed him by the neck and punched him at least twice in the eye. Rodríguez was arrested on charges of obstructing justice and needed seven stitches. After multiple delays, the charges against him were dropped and one of the officers was found guilty in December. Despite the outcome of his case, Rodríguez believes many officers will not face punishment. I doubt there ll be any changes, he said of promises made by the island s government to reform the department. PR Getting $22 Million to Help Crime Victims Puerto Rico s Justice Department says it will receive $22 million in federal funds to help crime victims on the island. Justice Secretary César Miranda said last week that the funds will help boost services for victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and attempted murder, among others. He says the amount is a 400 percent increase in such funds. Officials say the money will go to both government and nonprofit agencies. The announcement comes as the island s government cuts funding to public agencies and nonprofit organizations amid a funding crunch after a nearly decade-long economic slump.

4 The San Juan Daily Star 5 Final Settlement Expected in Longstanding Prison Conditions Case By EVA LLORENS VELEZ llorenseva4@gmail.com U.S. District Court Judge Paul J. Barbadoro was expected last week to give the green light to the last settlement in the Morales Feliciano case, a civil rights lawsuit filed in 1979 by a group of prison inmates over the deplorable conditions in the island s jails. However, the judge still had to make a decision about the $140 million in uncollected fines imposed against the government for violations to orders related to prison conditions. Barbadoro said he was going to give an $80 million credit to the government for the construction of the correctional health facility, which means he still had to decide how the commonwealth will be paying the remaining $80 million. I applaud the enormous creativity, the judge said to government and plaintiffs lawyers in reaching a settlement. In 1979, a group of inmates challenged the conditions of confinement within the entire correctional system and brought a class action lawsuit against the commonwealth government before the United States District Court alleging civil rights violations under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution caused by the unsatisfactory conditions of confinement. This longstanding and ongoing lawsuit brought to light the tremendous overcrowding and the virtual non-existence of health care throughout the system. Through the years, the government was able to reach agreements in aspects of the case, and by 2012 most had been settled. In 2014, the government asked the court to exempt it from some of the terms of the settlement due to lack of funding. In the settlement reached by the plaintiffs and the government, inmates in the class action suit will be divided into five groups and receive non-monetary benefits from the government, or what is known as an in kind remedy. According to the counsel for the plaintiffs, Guillermo Ramos, the transaction establishes a package of benefits to the five different groups of inmates depending on the historical period in which they were imprisoned. This is because the inmates who were imprisoned in the 1990s, when there were improvements in prison conditions, did not face the same level of deplorable prison conditions as those who were imprisoned in the 1970s. The inmates will get between six months and 10 years of benefits depending on the group they are part of, with those who were incarcerated between 1980 and 1987 having the most benefits. The benefits are not monetary but rather consist of government programs the inmates will be able to obtain for free. For instance, they will be able to study for free in programs offered by the University of Puerto Rico or through the Department of Education. They will also obtain certain benefits through the home materials assistance program and the home renovation program at the Department of Housing. The deal orders the island Health Department not to charge inmates for medical certificates, or charge deductibles for services provided by Centers for Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases under Mi Salud. Inmates will also be able to rent villas from the National Parks Company, but the entity can not charge them more than 75 percent of the rent. They will also get 50 percent discount on admissions to public areas under the care of the company. The Metropolitan Bus Authority will charge only 35 instead of 50 to inmates using buses. The Puerto Rico Fire Department can not charge more than 50 percent of the fees charged for permits issued by the Bureau of Fire Prevention, and can not charge more than 50 percent for the costs of courses offered by the Training Bureau. The State Department can not charge qualifying inmates the costs of registering a trademark. Furthermore, the Permit Management Office will not charge inmates for the costs of requesting use permits. Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture and the agencies under its umbrella are obliged to give priority to inmate claimants who qualify for placement in their programs.

5 6 The San Juan Daily Star Cardiovascular Center Leading the Way to PR s Future as Medical Tourism Destination By MARIA MIRANDA SIERRA mirandasanjuanstar@gmail.com The Cardiovascular Center for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean is continuing to gain strength as one of the main pillars of medical tourism on the island, betting on its state-of-the-art cardiovascular services to keep it at the forefront of technology and new treatments inside and outside of Puerto Rico. It also aims to continue to create alliances with other hospitals, health centers and primary medical groups across the island through satellite clinics (an establishment where patients are admitted for special studies and treatment by a group of health care professionals practicing together) as well as promoting better access to the Center s services. Former Cardiovascular Center for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Director Waleska Crespo said that when she started running the center some 33 months ago her main goal was to make the center one of the island s main medical tourism pillars and that attorney Carlos Cabrera -- who took over leadership of the center on Saturday -- promised to continue following the path she created. Late last week Crespo, Cardiovascular Friends Foundation President former Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón and Francisco Carvajal Foundation President Tania Carvajal inaugurated the Cardiovascular Center for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Medical Tourism Office and turned over the Admissions Office Revamp Project, an investment of some $250,000. In May we became the first government hospital institution to receive the certification from the Medical Tourism Association (MTA), and now we are the first public hospital to open a Medical Tourism Office to offer patients and their families better services and health care, Crespo said. Crespo added that since the idea of establishing an institution in Puerto Rico that specializes in cardiovascular conditions, it was clearly established that the hospital center would serve foreign patients. As part of that idea, a space for a hotel was designed on the fourth floor of the facilities and it was established that [the institution] would be called the Cardiovascular Center for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, Crespo said. During the past 23 years we have served patients from abroad, and it should be noted that our first cardiovascular surgery in 1992 was performed on a baby that lived in the U.S. and travelled to our facilities to receive the service. Twenty-three years ago, amid its official inauguration, the Center moved up its first operation scheduled when a surgical team conducted heart surgery on a fivemonth-old baby girl. The infant, who was born in Florida to a Puerto Rican father and an American mother, had a congenital heart valve condition that was overworking her newborn heart. The condition is known as Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Her parents, desperately seeking ways to make sure their little girl would survive and be able to live a long and healthy life, were referred by the baby s grandfather to the hospital s Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgeon Enrique Márquez. The operation took place on Aug. 18, 1992, the day the center opened its doors for patients. The first scheduled operation was programmed for an adult two days later, but seeing the situation and possible complications of conducting surgery on a five-month-old baby girl, the team of doctors put on their gloves and prepared to the save the first life in the Center s history. Once the operation concluded, 16- pound-infant Sydney Elizabeth Cestero Roberts was reported in good condition by Márquez and cardiologist Ángel Espinosa. On that day, with the child s grandfather, plastic surgeon Hernán Cestero at his side, Márquez noted that the procedure was more than a success. The operation went flawlessly and the baby s prognosis is excellent, Cestero said at the time. Pending no complications the infant was able to go home two days later, the doctor said. Márquez recalled that after the surgery the infant was taken into the large intensive care unit, where a staff of doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses and technicians connected her to numerous monitors that kept track of her heart condition, respiration, body temperature and blood pressure. The surgeon said that at the time the facilities surrounding the infant were brand new, with the latest developments and technologies. It didn t make the work easier, but it did make it safer, Márquez noted. Baby Sydney s story made the cover of the STAR 23 years ago. A copy of the news article and the newspaper cover photo of baby Sydney is framed and hangs on a wall of the hospital, clearly visibly as you pass through the hospital s entrance. In 2011, baby Sydney returned to Puerto Rico with her family to participate at the center s 19th anniversary, the only difference being that she was no longer her daddy s baby girl; she was as healthy as can be and was an honors student at the University of Texas. I m here today to say thank you to all who have helped me live a complete life, Cestero Roberts said in Cestero Roberts father said that once he and his wife found out their baby girl was suffering from PDA and needed to be operated on, he called his father, who recommended Márquez to perform the operation. Márquez said the only regret he has about that day is that he left baby Sydney with a scar on her chest. Meanwhile, as part of its strategic plan, the Center has joined efforts with the Puerto Rico Medical Tourism Corp. to form part of the government s efforts to attract patients from abroad to Puerto Rico to receive medical services. Currently some 35,000 patients visit the center each year. Although the center is facing a $2.6 million operational debt, the projections for the next fiscal year are that the debt will continue to decrease. The only institution on the island that specializes in the prevention, treatment and surgery of cardiovascular conditions in adults and pediatric patients, the Center is accredited by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Organizations, by the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Puerto Rico Health Department and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). Our commitment is to provide health care services of the highest quality and safety, Crespo said. It was established considering that the services would be directed not only to serve the population in Puerto Rico, but also patients from the U.S., Central America and the Caribbean.

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7 8 The San Juan Daily Star US Lawmaker Pushing Federal Advisory Board for PR Fiscal Woes By EVA LLORENS VELEZ Tom Marino A s the U.S. Supreme Court appears to have rejected the island s appeal seeking to validate a local bankruptcy law, the chairman of a U.S. House subcommittee said last week that he is pushing for the creation of a federal board to advise the island on its finances, but not to take control. Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican, said in an interview last week with Bloomberg that the panel would be appointed by Congress and the Obama administration. He said it would suggest how the territory could cut spending and take other steps -- such as seeking an exemption from the minimum wage -- to put an end to its chronic budget deficits and spur the economy. It wouldn t take direct control. Strictly advisory, he said. This takes it out of the hands of the passions of the people of Puerto Rico. The news is the latest of events in Congress seeking to deal with the island s finances. The Supreme Court did not schedule for conference an appeal filed by the commonwealth seeking to validate the local bankruptcy law, according to the top court s web site. It was not immediately known whether it means that the top court will not hear the lawsuit at all or will decide to hear it at a later time. That leaves Puerto Rico with little recourse in dealing with its finances other than negotiations with creditors to lower debt payments. The appeal filed by the commonwealth to the top court came after the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision to strike down the legislation aimed at granting local municipalities the right to enter bankruptcy. The island government had argued that excluding Puerto Rico s public entities from federal bankruptcy law was unconstitutional. Puerto Rico passed the so-called Recovery Act last year to give certain public corporations, with around $30 billion in debt, the ability to restructure financially in an orderly process as it struggles with around $72 billion in debt it is unable to pay. The Recovery Act was struck down by a federal court in Puerto Rico in February after bondholders in the island s power authority, including Franklin Advisers, OppenheimerFunds and Blue Mountain Capital, argued in a lawsuit that the legislation contravened the U.S. bankruptcy code, which expressly excludes Puerto Rico. The First Circuit said Puerto Rico should be given access to Chapter 9 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, which deals with municipal bankruptcies. Bondholders have consistently opposed this view. EPA Set to Clean Up Contaminated Soil at Manatí Site By The STAR Staff T he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a plan late last week to address contaminated soil at a two-acre former pesticide facility located in the municipality of Manatí. The Pesticide Warehouse III Superfund Site has soil and groundwater contaminated with pesticides and dioxins. A groundwater investigation is underway and a plan to address the contamination will be presented at a later date. The EPA will work to clean up this unfortunate legacy of pollution in Manatí, EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck said in a written statement. It is imperative that this land is cleaned up to ensure that public health and the environment are protected. In 2003, a fire at the site destroyed a former main warehouse and ruined a building next to it. A drainage ditch of approximately five feet in depth and 275 feet in length collects stormwater from the western portion of the site and empties into a natural on-site depression, which contaminates the groundwater. Residents of Manatí are currently connected to safe sources of drinking water from other municipal water supplies in the region. The Puerto Rico Land Authority owned and operated the site from 1954 to 1996, where pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers were handled. The investigation was conducted and paid for by the EPA. The EPA held a public meeting in Manatí on Aug. 18 and accepted public comments for 30 days, and considered public input before finalizing the plan. The EPA will excavate and treat the most heavily contaminated soil -- some 8,800 cubic yards -using a technology that heats the material so that contaminants can be pulled out and captured. After treatment, the soil will be disposed of at approved facilities. The excavated areas will then be backfilled with clean fill and soil. Additionally, areas with deeper soil contamination residues, at depths greater than 10 feet, will be covered to reduce the chance of exposure. The area will be seeded so that vegetation can grow. During soil cleanup activities, monitoring, testing and further studies will be conducted to ensure the safety of the community and the effectiveness of the cleanup. The EPA will conduct a review every five years to monitor the site. A study to address the groundwater is ongoing.

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9 10 The San Juan Daily Star Another US Senate Hearing on Puerto Rico Slated for Oct. 22 Orrin Hatch By EVA LLORENS VELEZ The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hear testimony on Puerto Rico s economy, debt and options for Congress moving forward, according to its website. The Oct. 22 hearing will take place at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. at 10 a.m. The announcement of the hearing came almost a week after the Senate Finance Committee held its own hearing on the island s fiscal challenges. Unlike the Finance Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is the one that has jurisdiction over most matters related to Puerto Rico, including its political status. Still, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to request audited reports from the government just as U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch did. Hatch said that he needed to see audited reports and better financial data to help Congress make better determinations about the needs of Puerto Rico. Government Development Bank President Melba Acosta and Center of the New Economy Public Policy Director Sergio Marxuach had already turned over documents to the committee on the fiscal situation of Puerto Rico, but Hatch said he needed data more like a debt sustainability analysis. Acosta said the report produced by economist Anne Krueger and two other economists was a debt sustainability analysis. She also turned over an analysis conducted by the firm Conway MacKenzie. The Republican-controlled Congress appears to be in no mood to help Puerto Rico, and at the Senate Finance Committee hearing Hatch expressed misgivings about some of the proposals put forward by commonwealth government officials, including for parity in federal healthcare funds after cuts threatened to create a crisis in that sector, and allowing Puerto Rico to benefit from Chapter 9 bankruptcy. A bailout from Washington is not expected, and while some on Capitol Hill are pushing for laws or reforms that could help Puerto Rico, their prospects are uncertain. While the government of Puerto Rico has taken some steps in recent years to address these matters, many more changes -- significant and fundamental changes -- needed to be made, Hatch told the committee. Democrats in the U.S. Senate in August introduced a bill proposing eliminating a cap on the amount of funding that the federal government provides to support Medicaid in U.S. territories including Puerto Rico. That bill was referred to the Finance Committee. Hatch said problems surrounding the island s healthcare were multi-dimensional and extremely complicated. It isn t as simple as deciding to give more health funds to Puerto Rico, because doing so would necessarily mean reduced funding for other priorities, increased taxes, or even more federal debt, Hatch said. SJ Archbishop Seeks Debt Relief for PR in DC By The STAR Staff San Juan Archbishop Roberto González Nieves met with congressional leaders and White House officials to push for a resolution to the island s debt crisis, according to Catholic News Service. He said the crisis has led to school closings, cuts in social services and health care, and job layoffs and reductions in employee benefits as Puerto Rico struggles to make payments on the $72 billion in debt the U.S. territory holds. We want to create more awareness of the urgency of the situation in Puerto Rico and the dangers that more austerity measures would create, González told Catholic News Service after meeting with congressional leaders. In terms affecting human lives, especially the poor, we already have approximately 50 percent of our people living under the poverty level and obviously the impact of the current situation is creating unemployment and a new exodus of people. The archbishop and the Reverend Heriberto Martínez Rivera, general secretary of the Puerto Rico Bible Society, met with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House minority leader; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); the chief of staff for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah); and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough in a whirlwind tour of Washington political leaders. Roberto González They listened. They asked many questions, the archbishop said on the way to White House. They promised to do more research and to become better informed. I sensed a desire to help. The religious leaders reiterated their pleas during an afternoon briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building. Their message was marked with pastoral as well as political overtones as they explained how a handful of predatory hedge funds had purchased debt from investors at pennies on the dollar and are demanding payment in full on the public bonds they hold. They called such actions immoral and a prime example of the profit-at-any-cost form of capitalism decried by Pope Francis. In recent months, Archbishop González has become increasingly vocal in calling for debt relief. He wrote a column on the issue that appeared in the July 16 issue of Time magazine and has spoken out numerous times since. He also was among 18 religious leaders in Puerto Rico, including four other Catholic bishops, who signed a widely distributed letter calling for the biblical concept of jubilee, or debt forgiveness, for the territory.