UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO 

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 : 

In re: : 

 : 

THE FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT AND : PROMESA 

MANAGEMENT BOARD FOR PUERTO RICO, : Title III 

 : 

 as representative of : Case No. 17-BK-3283 (LTS) 

 : 

THE COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO, et al., : 

: 

(Jointly Administered) 

Debtors.1

 : 

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RESPONSE OF OFFICIAL COMMITTEE OF UNSECURED CREDITORS TO 

DEBTORS’ MOTION FOR ORDER FURTHER EXTENDING DEADLINE TO FILE 

OBJECTION TO PROOFS OF CLAIM 

To the Honorable United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain: 

The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Committee”)2 respectfully submits 

this response (the “Response”) to the Debtors’ Motion for an Order Further Extending the 

Deadline to File Objection to Proofs of Claim [Docket No. 23234] (the “Second Extension 

Motion”).3 In support of this Response, the Committee respectfully states as follows:

 

1

 The Debtors in these Title III cases, along with each Debtor’s respective Title III case number and the last four 

(4) digits of each Debtor’s federal tax identification number, as applicable, are the (i) Commonwealth of Puerto 

Rico (Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK-3283 (LTS)) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3481); (ii) Puerto Rico 

Sales Tax Financing Corporation (“COFINA”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK-3284 (LTS)) (Last Four Digits of 

Federal Tax ID: 8474); (iii) Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (“HTA”) (Bankruptcy Case 

No. 17-BK-3567 (LTS)) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3808); (iv) Employees Retirement System of the 

Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (“ERS”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 17-BK-3566 (LTS)) (Last 

Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 9686); (v) Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (“PREPA”) (Bankruptcy Case 

No. 17-BK-4780 (LTS)) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3747); and (vi) Puerto Rico Public Buildings 

Authority (“PBA”) (Bankruptcy Case No. 19-BK-5233 (LTS)) (Last Four Digits of Federal Tax ID: 3801) 

(Title III case numbers are listed as Bankruptcy Case numbers due to software limitations). 

2

 The Committee is the official committee of unsecured creditors for all Title III Debtors, other than PBA and 

COFINA. 

3

 Capitalized terms used but not otherwise defined herein shall have the meaning given to such terms in the 

Second Extension Motion. 

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RESPONSE 

1. The Committee does not oppose the relief requested in the Second Extension 

Motion, namely a further 180-day extension of the Claim Objection Deadline through September 

4, 2023. The Committee, as the statutory fiduciary for all unsecured creditors of the 

Commonwealth and ERS (as well as HTA and PREPA),4 fully appreciates the challenges the 

Oversight Board is facing in reconciling more than 170,000 claims filed against the Title III 

Debtors, including as it relates to gathering information from the Commonwealth and its 

agencies necessary for the Oversight Board to evaluate the more than 7,700 Remaining Claims. 

2. Nevertheless, the Committee is concerned about the pace at which the Remaining 

Claims are being resolved and the timing of distributions to general unsecured creditors.5 For 

one, as the Second Extension Motion notes, only 116 claims asserting approximately $5 million 

in liabilities have been allowed to date.6 See Second Extension Motion ¶ 21. While the Motion 

indicates that an additional 85 claims may be allowed upon resolution of pending claims 

objections, id., it is disappointing that more than five and a half years into these Title III cases 

(and almost a year after the effective date of the Plan), only so few claims have been allowed, 

while more than 7,700 claims remain unresolved. Further, the Oversight Board’s most recent 

status report indicated that there were approximately 1,500 claims remaining that are fully 

unliquidated. See Docket No. 23056. Indeed, in light of the current claims landscape, to the 

 

4

 Pursuant to Section 90.1 of the Plan, the Committee continues to exist for purposes of the Commonwealth and 

ERS cases until the order confirming the Commonwealth plan of adjustment has become a final order (which 

has not yet occurred). 

5

 Prior to filing this Response, the Committee also conferred with the claims supervisors appointed pursuant to 

section 82.1(b) of the Plan. The Committee is informed that they fully support the Committee’s position in this 

Response. 

6

 That is only a slight increase over the approximately 100 claims that the Committee understands had been 

allowed (in an aggregate amount of approximately $2.5 million) as of the filing of the Oversight Board’s first 

request for an extension of the Claim Objection Deadline in July 2022. 

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Committee’s knowledge, no distributions have been made to general unsecured creditors of the 

Commonwealth or ERS, including holders of convenience claims (even though the purpose of 

establishing a convenience class under the Plan was to provide distributions to holders of valid 

small claims without delay). 

3. To be clear, the Committee does not fault the Oversight Board for focusing their 

claims reconciliation efforts first on the elimination of claims on technical or non-substantive 

grounds (including objections to deficient claims). That said, the Second Extension Motion 

provides no indication as to when the more than 7,700 Remaining Claims will be resolved—or at 

least substantially resolved such that distributions to allowed general unsecured claims could 

commence. The Committee does not doubt that, as the Oversight Board notes, many of these 

claims raise “unique facts and legal issues.” Second Extension Motion ¶ 22. However, the time 

has come to focus all efforts on resolving the Remaining Claims as soon as possible—even if, 

according to the Oversight Board, these claims “represent among the most substantive and 

complex claims against the Debtors and require more time to analyze and develop an appropriate 

response.” Id. 

4. The Committee is, of course, aware that the Court previously granted the 

Oversight Board’s first request for an extension of the Claim Objection Deadline [Docket No. 

21601] (the “First Extension Motion”), without requiring (as the Committee had requested at the 

time) that the Oversight Board provide a timeline of when the Remaining Claims will be 

resolved. However, as the Court noted at the August 17, 2022 hearing on the First Extension 

Motion, the Court expects “focused work toward achieving the expeditious conclusion of the 

claims resolution process, and the payments of distribution to creditors who have waited 

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five or more years at this point for the payment of their claims.” Aug. 17, 2022 Hr’g Tr. at 

16:8-12 (emphasis added). 

5. The Committee submits that it is fair to ask, at this point in these Title III cases, 

what progress the Oversight Board expects to make over the course of the next six months and 

when it expects to complete (or at least substantially complete) the claims reconciliation process, 

so that distributions to general unsecured creditors, including holders of convenience claims, can 

at least commence. For all these reasons, the Committee requests that the Oversight Board’s 

second extension of the Claim Objection Deadline be conditioned on the Oversight Board 

providing a timeline as to how it expects to bring the reconciliation of the Remaining Claims to 

an expeditious conclusion. 

[Remainder of page intentionally left blank.] 

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WHEREFORE, the Committee respectfully requests that the Court grant relief consistent 

with this Response. 

Dated: January 17, 2023 By: /s/ Luc A. Despins . 

PAUL HASTINGS LLP 

Luc A. Despins, Esq. (Pro Hac Vice) 

Nicholas A. Bassett, Esq. (Pro Hac Vice) 

G. Alexander Bongartz, Esq. (Pro Hac Vice) 

200 Park Avenue 

New York, New York 10166 

Telephone: (212) 318-6000 

lucdespins@paulhastings.com 

nicholasbassett@paulhastings.com 

alexbongartz@paulhastings.com 

Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured 

Creditors 

By: /s/ Juan J. Casillas Ayala . 

CASILLAS, SANTIAGO & TORRES LLC 

Juan J. Casillas Ayala, Esq. (USDC - PR 218312) 

Israel Fernández Rodríguez, Esq. (USDC - PR 225004) 

Juan C. Nieves González, Esq. (USDC - PR 231707) 

Cristina B. Fernández Niggemann, Esq. (USDC - PR 

306008) 

PO Box 195075 

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00919-5075 

Telephone: (787) 523-3434 Fax: (787) 523-3433 

jcasillas@cstlawpr.com 

ifernandez@cstlawpr.com 

jnieves@cstlawpr.com 

cfernandez@cstlawpr.com 

Local Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured 

Creditors

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