The judge leading Puerto Rico's bankruptcy case, Laura Taylor Swain, issued an order to Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares to present--on or before next Friday, May 26--his position on the petition made by Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Eduardo Bhatia to have Rosselló Nevares publish the national budget, which has not yet been disclosed.

Regarding this issue, last April, the PDP senator submitted a writ of mandamus before the Court of First Instance of San Juan (CFI) to order the Governor to publish the budget for next fiscal year, as presented before the Fiscal Control Board (FCB).

As a response, given that the central government has filed for bankruptcy through Title III of PROMESA, the Island's first executive asked to have the action moved from the CFI to federal court, to have the latter deal with the issue of access to the information.

Nonetheless, the PDP senator did not agree with Rosselló Nevares's position, so he asked the magistrate to return the dispute to the state court, since it deals with information access, a topic covered by the Constitution of Puerto Rico.

Given this scenario, Taylor Swain granted the next three days to await for a response from the Puerto Rican governor.

'The people have the right to know, and this government has denied this right repeatedly, especially when it comes to the budget. I have always advocated for transparency, and I will carry this to its final consequences,' Bhatia asserted in a written statement.