Orlando Parga

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Orlando Parga-Figueroa (born on February 6, 1939) is a Senator of Puerto Rico whose recommended expulsion from the New Progressive Party was downgraded to a generic censure by the party's General Assembly on August 20, 2006. He was born in Mayaguez and currently resides in Caguas with his wife, Teresita.

Parga has devoted his whole life to the struggle to convert Puerto Rico into the 51st state of the Union. A prominent Republican who did not abandon the now-defunct Statehood Republican Party when the splinter New Progressive Party was created in 1967, he is known as "Mr. Republican" in Puerto Rican political circles. While many of his political views are clearly conservative, he has assumed liberal views on some issues, such as consumer protection.

Elected in a 1999 special election to an at-large Senate seat, he was elected to a full term in 2000 and served as Senate Minority Whip from 2001 to 2004, when he was elected to his second full term as Senator at-large. He currently serves as Vice President of the Puerto Rico Senate and, after being suspended from party offices within the New Progressive Party for his refusal to support defeated 2004 NPP gubernatorial candidate Pedro Rossello's bid to replace Kenneth McClintock as President of the Senate, was recommended for expulsion from the party in March, 2006, recommendation that was rejected by the party's General Assembly on August 20, 2006, when it issued a generic censure in its stead. Within the Senate, he has chaired since early 2005 the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Government Reports. As a result of the May 2005 split within the majority delegation, he assumed the chairmanship of the Federal, Industrial and Economic Affairs Committee of the Senate and of the Cordova and Fernos Congressional Internship Joint Committee. After Senator Héctor Martínez resigned the chairmanship of the Senate's Public Safety Committee, Parga was appointed its acting chair by the Senate President.

After public revelations that the Puerto Rico Capitol's surveillance camera system was being misused, in November 2005 he was appointed to chair the tripartisan Blue Ribbon Committee looking into the matter. His refusal to cover-up sworn statements suggesting administrative irregularities in the administration of the House of Representatives triggered the New Progressive Party directorate to recommend his expulsion, along with Senate President Kenneth McClintock.