ASKED about the Department of Public Safety officers who are being called to testify before the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations, DPS Commissioner Robert Guerrero on Tuesday said the officers are merely doing their jobs.
“As far as providing security for public officials, if you look at the law, [it says] security must be provided for public officials, and that’s what my officers have been doing. I think they’ve done a superb job,” he said.
But he added that the officers who were “brought in [to testify before the House panel in the hope that they] say things that…are not truthful — that’s not right.”
He added, “Everything they’ve testified about — they’ve been honest and I believe in my officers.”
He said some of the information that lawmakers have mentioned in their line of questioning was based on hearsay and not facts.
“Where are they getting their information from? I solemnly believe that they never did their investigation. People came up to them and told them things,” he said.
In a letter to the House JGO committee chairwoman, Rep. Celina R. Babauta, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said lawmakers should bring their issues and concerns to him and not impose hardship on “innocent government employees and their family members” by serving them with subpoenas to testify at a JGO hearing.
“[Instead of] dragging all these innocent, hardworking government employees, putting their families through this subpoena, and all [of] this other stuff, come to me. I’m the one that you want to ask,” he said.
The House JGO has not yet subpoenaed the governor.
In these hearings, the governor said, government employees are asked about matters that are not within their scope of work, but about their personal opinions.
But the governor said he respects the process, which is why he is willing to “sit down and talk about it.”
Asked whether he would appear before the House panel, Torres said he will address it once he receives a notice from the committee.
Committee Chair Babauta, for her part, said, “There is a serious concern from the public, from the Legislature. We are a separate branch and we’re doing our job.”
Robert Guerrero
