State funeral

Saying that state funerals have lost their meaning, the Commonwealth has enacted a new law limiting this honor only to high-ranking officials of the government as well as to public servants who gave their lives in the line of duty.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio signed into law the legislation that sets the guidelines and procedures for granting state funerals to deserving individuals in the community.

The measure sponsored by Sen. Juan P. Tenorio also establishes the spending limit by the government, which must not exceed $3,000 for each ceremony, and protocol, like the number of gun salute to be given.

Under the new policy, public officials who must be honored by a state funeral range from present and former governors and lieutenant governors, current mayors and members of the Legislature and resident representative to the United States as well as judges and justices.

Police and fire officers are also included in the category if they are killed in the line of duty.

But the governor, citing the strict set of rules, asked the Legislature to amend the new law to include others who might not fall under these categories, but who have served the island “in a truly extraordinary way.”

While he acknowledged that this is precisely the reason why lawmakers enacted such legislation — to prevent giving the honors to unlikely individuals, Tenorio said the criteria should be widened so as not to exclude other personalities who must be honored with a state funeral.

“If this is a concern, providing more specific criteria as guidelines for who else might be entitled to a state funeral might be one way of addressing the prior problems the Legislature sought to resolve, while at the same time giving the Commonwealth the flexibility to honor a deserving individual,” the governor said in his message to the Legislature

It took the lawmakers almost one year to enact the legislation.