have for more than 100 years been marketed as a state or municipalitys best credit safe enough for widows and orphansbut governor garca padillas move seems to signal that puerto rico remains willing at least for now to keep its general obligation bonds high on their pedestal above other types of debt during the current emergency the governor has the final say on which bonds will be paidin simple terms we have begun to default on our debt in an effort to attempt to repay bonds issued with the full faith and credit of the commonwealth he said in written testimony and to secure sufficient resources to protect the life health safety and welfare of the people of puerto ricoas puerto ricos troubles have worsened fears have mounted that default will give rise to a cascade of creditor lawsuits with investors jockeying to get to the top of the repayment hierarchy puerto ricos debt has an extraordinarily complex structure with nearly 20 separate governmental bond issuers guarantees between varying branches of government and unresolved questions about prioritiesin bankruptcy lawsuits filed by creditors are generally held in abeyance while the restructuring process unfolds bankruptcy also has legal tools for forcing holdout creditors to accept repayments that are lower than the bond sale initially promised and even lower than the holders expect at the start of the proceedingsin his spoken remarks to the committee governor garca padilla made clear that he did not relish invoking the clawback and hoped that the senators would finally see it as proof that puerto rico was deserving of help from congresswe have taken this difficult step in the trust that congress will act soon he said speaking slowly and clearly so his meaning would not be misunderstood but do not be misled we have no resources left puerto rico cannot keep this up longerthe topranking democrat at the hearing senator richard blumenthal of connecticut said that puerto ricos move was an extraordinary financial gymnastic but republicans the biggest opponents of bankruptcy for the island were less appreciativeeven before the hearing the committees republican chairman charles e grassley of iowa had expressed skepticism about bankruptcy for puerto rico on tuesday he opened the hearing saying he had read in the new york times on monday that some of the governors advisers had been urging him to default because only a catastrophe would move congress especially republicans to helpi hope the governor will tell us whether this is accurate senator grassley said it would trouble me greatly if true but the governor stayed with his prepared remarks and did not reveal any tactical recommendations from his advisersthe other puerto rican official who testified the islands nonvoting member of congress pedro pierluisi said that it had already explained its predicament to five different committees and was entitled to a responseneither the governor nor mr pierluisi took questions from the committee which turned directly to a second panel of witnesses who discussed various aspects of bankruptcy for puerto ricoother republicans