By EFE
Sep 24, 2024, 07:30 AM EDT
San Juan – The candidate for governor of Puerto Rico for the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), Jesús Manuel Ortiz, said this Monday that one of his priorities is to improve the quality of life of citizens to stop migration, which is reducing the population of the island.
Speaking at an event organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Puerto Rico, Ortiz said migration is “the main challenge” facing the island, which currently has a population of just over 3 million.
“Today we have the population of the 1980s. Last year’s fiscal plan says that if things continue like this, in 2050 we will have the population of the 1960s. That is devastating for a country. There is no country that can move forward with that reality,” he said.
According to data from the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics (IEPR) last December, 43,000 residents of the island emigrated to the United States in 2022.
The figures from previous years are even more dramatic. Since 2010, the number of emigrants has not dropped below 60,000.
In this regard, Ortiz lamented that young Puerto Ricans are leaving “in search of better opportunities” and older adults are emigrating “in search of services.”
“The only way we can stop this is by pursuing a government agenda that, far from dividing us into ideological extremes, will pursue an agenda of unification on important issues for the country that improve people’s quality of life,” he stressed.
“I have to guarantee people a quality of life. Only in this way can I prevent them from leaving and only in this way can I give them an additional reason to return,” added the PPD candidate in the elections on November 5.
To this end, among other proposals, Ortiz announced his plan to allocate $225 million dollars from the Government surplus to help $25,000 families who care for seniors and/or people with special needs.
If elected governor next November, Ortiz also reiterated that he will cancel the contract with LUMA Energy, the company in charge of electricity transmission on the island and which is the target of strong criticism for frequent blackouts.
“This cancellation will begin the day after I am sworn in with the appointment of a transition committee that will be in charge of cancelling it and justifying to the court that the reasons for the cancellation are the breach of contract by that company,” he explained.
Ortiz plans to replace LUMA executives with “the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Authority, which has the expertise to temporarily guarantee stability,” and then open the process to find a new operator, which could be private, public or an alliance.
The PPD candidate faces Jenniffer González, from the New Progressive Party (PNP); Juan Dalmau, from the alliance between the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC); and Javier Jiménez, from Proyecto Dignidad (PD).