Without any public announcement, Puerto Rico’s Education Secretary, Eliezer Ramos Parés, quietly established a Faith-Based Office within the Department of Education (DE) at the end of September.

Librarian Noé González Ruiz, from Ricardo Arroyo Laracuente School in Dorado, was appointed as the office’s main liaison, while seven others were designated as regional coordinators.

An investigation by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) found that six of the eight officials appointed to the office are donors to politicians from the ruling New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish).

“Mr. González will be responsible for leading the Department’s initiatives and activities and will provide guidance and assistance to Faith-Based Offices, including those created by employees and students, without discriminating against any religion or denomination. He will also coordinate his efforts and activities with the Office to ensure alignment with the Executive’s public policy,” reads the circular letter issued by the Secretary on September 29.

Although the letter was dated late September, Facebook posts by the appointed liaison in the Ponce region, María de los Ángeles Piris Grau, show that a meeting related to the office’s organization had taken place there at least a week earlier.

Discussing the initiative, which, according to the letter, stems from the approval of the Fundamental Right to Religious Freedom Act in April 2025, Juan M. Gaud Pacheco, director of the Faith-Based Office at La Fortaleza (the governor’s mansion), wrote on his social media:

“It was promised, legislated, and now it’s being implemented. The fear of ideological and sexualizing agendas. And not just Act 14, but a solid legal foundation as well. You can find it on the Department of Education’s website. As it should be… now those who threw us to the lions are afraid.”

Among the accomplishments claimed by La Fortaleza’s Faith-Based Office, which Gaud Pacheco has led since the governor appointed him in August 2025, are religious gatherings, masses, meetings of pastors and chaplains, and decrees of fasting or reflection in several municipalities and government agencies, including the Department of Health, the Department of Housing, the Legislature, and public schools.

The office also claimed credit for the signing of Act 64, which amends the Internal Revenue Code to grant tax exemptions to nonprofit religious organizations, and for the construction of the Plaza del Creyente (Believer’s Plaza) near the Capitol, at a cost exceeding $200,000.  

Linked by “La Palma”

Appearing on television, Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés said, “[The Office] doesn’t cost the system anything extra, just the time of these staff members to carry out public policy. Religion won’t be discussed; this isn’t about promoting indoctrination. It’s about ensuring compliance with the law and guaranteeing that organizations can have their space.”

In a written statement, the Department of Education told the CPI that the agency’s Faith-Based Office will facilitate and coordinate with faith-based organizations to encourage their participation in educational initiatives.

Three days after the circular letter was issued, the Arecibo Regional Education Office announced on its Facebook page that it would hold “Faith-Based services at noon in our schools and in government agency centers across Puerto Rico, without affecting work hours or instructional time.”

Among those appointed as regional liaisons is Enrique Cordero Soto, who serves both as superintendent of the Department of Education in Arecibo and as pastor of the evangelical church Huellas de Jesucristo (Christ Footsteps).

Ivelize Flores Colón, named liaison for the Humacao region, is a municipal legislator for the PNP in Patillas.

Piris Grau has worked at the Department of Education for 30 years in various positions and appears on her social media accounts participating in events with Governor Jenniffer González Colón and the recent Convención de la Palma, the PNP’s party convention, named after its palm tree symbol.

The head of the Faith-Based Office and several regional liaisons have donated to PNP politicians.

For instance, Noé González Ruiz contributed nearly $800 to the campaign committees of Governor González Colón, former Secretary of Corrections and later PNP mayoral candidate for Dorado Erik Rolón Suárez, and PNP Representative Tatiana Pérez Ramírez.

On his Facebook profile, González Ruiz has shared videos and posts criticizing “the incoherence of socialism,” claiming that “socialists attack each other,” and asserting that “the left’s game is collapsing.” He has also shared posts supporting U.S. right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was later killed.

In October 2024, the Office of Government Ethics (OEG in Spanish) filed a complaint against him after he led the audience at a school event in Dorado’s Rafael Hernández Colón Pavilion in chanting “Full speed ahead and with greater strength,” the slogan from the late Mayor Carlos A. López Rivera’s reelection campaign. The OEG fined him $3,000.

The CPI requested an interview with González Ruiz, but he was unavailable.

Piris Grau donated a total of $585 to various candidates. Her largest contribution went to Javier Molina Pagán, a PNP candidate for mayor of Utuado who has held several positions within the Department of Education. She also donated to the governor’s campaign committee and to Ramón Burgos Bermúdez, current director of the Family Department’s Socio-Economic Development Administration (ADSEF, in Spanish) and former PNP candidate for the House of Representatives in Ponce.

Flores Colón donated a total of $620 to Maritza Sánchez Neris, the mayor of Patillas, as well as to the municipality’s PNP committee.

Enrique Cordero Soto contributed to the campaign committee of Obed D. Cintrón González, who ran for mayor of Adjuntas under the PNP banner.

Carlos J. Ramírez Rosario, liaison for the Caguas region, donated $675 to the campaign committees of Governor González Colón, Representative Tatiana Pérez Ramírez, and Representative José Aponte Hernández.

The person appointed liaison for the Mayagüez region, Wandalis Valle Rosado, previously served as principal of the Sebastián Pabón Alves School in Cabo Rojo.

In San Juan, Alicia López Acevedo, former principal of the Carlos F. Daniels Vocational School in Carolina and now a superintendent, was named regional liaison.

Francisco Pagán Morales, assistant superintendent and now the faith liaison for the Bayamón region, donated $100 to the campaign committee of former Governor Pedro Pierluisi.

Is This Office Necessary in the Department of Education?

For Yanira Reyes Gil, first vice chair of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, creating this office within the Department of Education “is unnecessary, just as unnecessary as the Religious Freedom Act, because the Constitution already provides clear protections against discrimination based on religious beliefs and guarantees the right to practice one’s religion. In other words, it already protects the expression of those beliefs, so this wasn’t needed. There is no pattern of discrimination [based on religion] in the schools.”

According to the Department’s circular letter, the new office will be responsible for developing and implementing the executive work plan, coordinating with other executive agencies on its rollout, guiding the school community, and addressing any issues related to faith-based offices that may come up within the Department’s divisions.

Reyes Gil expressed concern that the office will be authorized to provide training on religious topics and coordinate faith-related activities.

“What worries me most,” she said, “is the explicit call for students, employees, and staff to participate in religious activities. I think this poses many risks because it could create pressure for people to take part in these activities that the office promotes or, conversely, lead to the isolation of those who choose not to.”

For Francisco Concepción Márquez, theologian and professor of criminal justice at Interamerican University, the Department’s letter “says a lot and says nothing.”

“There’s no way to know what the actual purpose of this office is, except that they’ll have personnel supposedly tasked with helping the agency and schools make decisions on matters of a religious nature,” he said. “The great danger of this circular letter is that it establishes a privilege for religious discourse.”

According to the DE, the creation of the Faith-Based Office is justified by both the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Constitution, as well as by the 2018 Educational Reform Act, the recently enacted Acts 10 and 14, Executive Order 20, which established the Faith-Based Office under the Governor’s Office, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Attorney Yanira Reyes Gil emphasized that Puerto Rico’s Constitution states that “the government cannot establish an official religion.”

“This means the State must maintain religious neutrality,” she explained, “not only by avoiding the imposition of a specific religion but also by refraining from adopting a religious stance as part of public policy.”

She noted that the same Constitution mandates that Puerto Rico’s educational system “shall be public, free, and nonsectarian.”

“That means the education system cannot be a religious one,” she added. “When you combine that with the creation of this office and the rhetoric being implemented by the government through these cited laws, it establishes an educational system that privileges religious messaging.”

Reyes Gil also warned that it remains to be seen “how this anti-discrimination protection will manifest when it involves a non-Christian religion, or someone who isn’t religious at all.”

If parents, teachers, or students were to challenge the circular letter in court, they would have to “demonstrate that it causes them harm,” said Concepción Márquez. He believes the letter violates the principle of neutrality but doubts that any lawsuit would prosper.

“We have a Supreme Court controlled by the New Progressive Party,” he noted. “So, the likelihood of that same court ruling against the State is quite low.”

The teachers’ organization Educamos condemned the guideline  in a statement asserting that “all children and youth educated in Puerto Rico’s public schools deserve a secular education grounded in ethical principles… ethical and humanist values must prevail over the pressures and interests of private sectors.”

Similarly, the advocacy group Frente Amplio de Acción Social demanded “a public education system that is pluralistic, critical, and free from religious impositions.”

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.