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A. Rights Related to Work.- The government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies and instrumentalities, public or quasi-public corporations, municipalities, and all private, natural or juridical persons who operate businesses in Puerto Rico, shall be under the obligation to:

(a) Give preference to a veteran, under equal academic and technical conditions or experience, when filling any position, employment or employment opportunity.

(b) Reinstate a veteran in the same position or work he was performing at the time he was called into the Armed Forces, if the veteran formally requests it within six (6) months following his discharge, and the same position or office he held still exists, or in another of the same category.

(c) Add five (5) points or five (5) percent whichever is greater, to the grade obtained by a veteran in any exam or test required to qualify for a job or a promotion. The veterans who have a service connected disability shall be given an additional five (5) points or five (5) percent whichever is greater.

(d) Offer competitive tests to any veteran who, due to being in the active service, has not been able to take the competitive tests, and who requests them within ninety (90) days after his honorable discharge; and if he passes said tests, the veteran's name is to be included in the corresponding list or register.

B. Rights Regarding Education.- (a) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of Education to draw up a plan to provide academic education and vocational or technical training for veterans. In order to carry out such purpose, the Secretary of Education is hereby authorized to use the federal funds appropriated to extend the existing educational facilities, especially with regard to vocational training and the establishment of vocational training centers for veterans. The creation of new educational facilities includes, without being limited thereto, the construction of new areas for workshops and classrooms, the purchase of equipment, the training of teaching staff and the construction of dwellings for students.

(b) The Secretary of Education is hereby authorized to make arrangements with the University of Puerto Rico, and transfer the necessary funds, so that the University, either independently, or jointly with the Department of Education, may carry out special training projects for teachers, technical studies, construction and any other type of project to extend or create educational facilities directed mainly to teaching veterans. The Higher Education Council is hereby authorized to make contracts with the Secretary of Education for such purposes.

(c) The Department of Education and the University of Puerto Rico are hereby authorized to accept any funds from the Federal Government which have been appropriated for the development of the state veterans' educational program. The reimbursements, funds and any other sums that the Secretary of Education receives from the Federal Government for these purposes shall be deposited in the

Commonwealth Treasury and shall constitute a special trust fund to be used for the development of this program; Provided, that any unspent balance or remainder of the Federal Government funds that was

transferred to the general funds shall be transferred to the special trust fund created herein; And provided, further, that the payments and disbursements for personal services shall preferably be charged to this fund, and the Secretary of Education is hereby authorized and empowered to pay, as he is herein directed to pay, chargeable to the same, any expenses or obligations that have been incurred or that will be incurred in the development of this veterans' educational program.

(d) Any veteran who is an official or employee of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies and instrumentalities, public or quasi-public corporations, and of the municipal governments who wishes to avail himself of the benefits of any federal or Commonwealth legislation to continue his studies in or outside of Puerto Rico, shall be entitled to request leave without pay, for the reasonable period of time required for the studies and while he is taking said courses, and his immediate supervisor is under the obligation to grant him said leave.

(e) Once any veteran who avails himself of the benefits of the previous subsection concludes his studies, and requests it within the following one hundred and twenty (120) days, he shall be reinstated in the position or office he held at the time he left in order to study, or in another position or office of the same category, salary and rank, and once he is reinstated in said position of office, he may only be dismissed for reasons recognized by the laws of Puerto Rico, the regulations of the department in which he is employed, or the rules of the Central personnel Administration Office, if his position is subject to the provisions of the Personnel Act.

(f) The Department of Education shall extend its vocational school systems throughout the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, to provide technical-vocational training to all veterans who request it, in accordance with the federal legislation which appropriates funds to pay for veterans studies.

(g) The Department of Education shall provide the educational facilities needed for the veterans who wish to broaden or improve their academic education, as an essential part of its adult educational program. (h) Any veteran university student who has exhausted or will soon exhaust his right to study under the legislation approved by the Congress of the United States of America, without having completed his bachelor's degree or other post-graduate studies he has already initiated, for which he may qualify and wish to pursue, because said studies extend for a longer period of time than authorized by federal legislation, shall be entitled to free tuition at the University of Puerto Rico and its Regional Colleges, and preference, in equal conditions, as to assistance, grants and other benefits granted to university students, The veterans who are university students in recognized universities outside of the territory of the United States and Puerto Rico shall enjoy the same benefits as if they were studying in any university in Puerto Rico. When said students study in Puerto Rico in an educational center other than the University of Puerto Rico, but which is recognized by the Higher Education Council, or by a national accrediting agency of colleges and universities of the United States of North America, shall be entitled to a sum for tuition and stipends for library, laboratory, health and others, which shall not exceed the sum that the educational center currently requires of the other students for the same concepts for similar studies. The Secretary of Education is hereby authorized to promulgate rules and regulations with the approval of the Governor, in

order to comply with the provisions in this paragraph, and the funds needed to carry out the aforementioned purposes shall be set aside in the budget of expenses of the Department of Education.

When the educational centers that have been or are recognized by the Higher Education Council or by a national accrediting agency of colleges and universities of the United States of America, initiate or establish new courses, programs, colleges or schools, they shall be entitled to receive the benefits

authorized in this section until the Higher Education Council or the national accrediting agency of colleges and universities of the United States of America takes final action recognizing them, or, in the case of courses which require the approval of a revalidation examination in order to exercise the profession or trade, until the competent state body refuses the corresponding revalidation examination.

All the payments to students, prior to the approval of this act, that meet the requirements imposed under the provisions herein established and that have also been made subject to the regulating provisions which ruled until the date of approval of this act, which are compatible with this chapter, are hereby conformed. It is hereby also authorized to reconsider those cases that were denied prior to the approval of this act, and which, by virtue of the authorization consigned herein, if said payments had been made, they would have been confirmed according to what is provided herein.

(i) If a Merchant Marine School is established in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the veterans who meet the admission requirements shall be given preference for admission.

(j) The Secretary of Education is empowered to make the necessary arrangements with the Veterans' Administration and to establish a Program for the Matching of Funds to the General Program of

Accelerated Payments to veterans and eligible family members are provided by the Federal Public Law 95- 202 of October 1, 1977.

C. Rights related to Government Retirement System.- (a) Any veteran who enters for the first time or reenters the service of the Commonwealth, its agencies or instrumentalities, public or quasi-public corporations, or the municipal governments, and becomes a participant of any of the government systems or retirement funds, shall be entitled upon request, to be credited for retirement purposes, all the time that he has been in active service in the Armed Forces, including the time he had been in active service in the Armed Forces, including the time he had been in active service in the Armed Forces prior to the

effectiveness of this Act. For the crediting of these services, regardless of when they were rendered, the veteran shall pay the corresponding contributions on the basis of salaries earned on entering the Armed Forces, with interest, from the moment the services were rendered and pursuant to the provisions of the pertinent Retirement Act. Military services rendered at any moment in individual and employer contributions plus interest to the pertinent retirement system, on the basis of salaries earned on entering government services. Interest shall be computed from the time said peacetime services were rendered. (b) Any veteran employed by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies, instrumentalities, public or quasi-public corporations, or the municipal governments, who avails himself of a study plan through a leave without pay, shall be entitled to have accredited for retirement purposes all the time he spent

studying, The government agency which granted the leave for said studies shall pay the employer's contribution, and the veteran shall pay the contributions that correspond to him. In these cases it shall be mandatory to give the veteran easy terms of payment in accordance with the regulations established by the Retirement Act in effect.

(c) The veteran who receives a disability pension from the Government of the United States of America shall not be impaired from availing himself of the benefits of this chapter.

D. Rights Related to the Acquisition of Properties,.- Preference shall be given to any veteran who qualifies, in equal conditions, in any distribution, sale, cession, donation or lease of property of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its agencies or instrumentalities and municipalities, including the housing projects under the Department of housing.

E. Rights Regarding Tax Obligations.- First: Income Tax.For the purposes of the Income Tax Act, Act No. 91 of June 29, 1954, as amended, every veteran shall be entitled to a deduction in the amount of five hundred (500) dollars for life, which shall be effective as of the 1988 taxable year which begins the first of January of that same year. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby empowered to promulgate the rules and regulations needed with regard to this deduction, and the same shall have the force of law as soon as they are approved by the Governor.

Second: Property taxes. (A) Exemption Applicable to all Veterans:: The dwelling that a veteran builds and acquires in good faith for his residence, or his and his family's residence, if he has one, shall be exempted from the imposition and payment of property taxes for a period of ten(10) years and up to five thousand (5,000) dollars for its appraised taxable value, and if the building has more than one dwelling, the appraised taxable value, for the purposes of the exemption, shall be the proportional part which corresponds to the dwelling occupied by a veteran, of the total value of the building and the lot, as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury.

The application for exemption thus granted shall be made in the manner determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, and once approved by him, its effect shall be prospective, Provided, that the ten (10) year exemption shall commence on the fiscal year following that in which the veteran builds or acquires his dwelling; provides, further, that if a veteran who is enjoying said exemption, should sell his house or dwelling, he shall be entitled to complete the ten(10) year period when he purchases or acquires another property for his dwelling.

For the purposes of this section the term dwelling means the building in which the veteran has established his domicile and that of his immediate family, as well as the lot on which the building is located, which belongs to the veteran. If the building has more than one dwelling, apartment or place of residence, the term 'dwelling' shall cover only that part of the building occupied, in fact, by a veteran as his domicile and that of his immediate family.

The Secretary of the Treasury shall promulgate, with the approval of the Governor, the rules and regulations needed, which once they have been promulgated, shall have the force of law.

Those veterans who have exhausted part, or all of the four thousand (4,000) dollar deduction that the former legislation granted for a ten(10) year period, shall only be entitled to complete the remaining number of years up to ten (10) years this chapter grants, it being understood that the deduction for the remaining years shall be of five thousand (5,000) dollars.

It shall be understood that the exemption granted by this subsection is in addition to any other exemption granted by the Commonwealth to the taxpayers.

(B) Exemption Applicable to Injured Veterans:: Every house built, acquired or remodeled or to be constructed, acquired or remodeled in the future by a disabled veteran, and the lot where the same is located, which does not exceed five hundred (500) square meters in the urban zone, or one cuerda in the rural zone, shall be exempted from the payment of property taxes, provide that the same is the dwelling of the injured veteran or his immediate family as established in act of congress 06-89 [sic] effective on January 1, 1968.

The tax exemption granted to an injured veteran for his property under the terms of this chapter, shall cease when the property is no longer used as his dwelling or that of his immediate family. Nevertheless, the right to exemption is recoverable once he reconstructs his home on the previously exempted property or when he acquires another property and establishes his home thereupon.

The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby empowered to promulgate the necessary regulations with regard to this exemption, and once they have been approved by the Governor they shall force the law.

(C) Exemption Applicable to Disabled Veterans: Any veteran who receives disability compensation of fifty percent (50%) or more from the Veterans' Administration shall be entitled to a property tax exemption on the first fifty thousand (50,000) dollars of the appraised value of the property for taxable purposes. The partial exemption in the payment of taxes shall only be applicable to the tax which corresponds to the house built or acquired by a veteran, and the lot where the same is built which does not exceed five hundred (500) square meters in the urban zone, or one cuerda in the rural zone, provided that the dwelling has been the residence of the veteran or his immediate family on January 1 of the year immediately preceding the taxable year for which he is requesting the exemption.

The partial exemption shall be determined according to the degree of disability that has been determined as of January 1 of each year by the Federal Government's Veteran's Administration for the veteran, through a written certificate to such effect.

The partial exemption shall be claimed by the interested party each year at the time of paying the taxes, after presenting the following documents to the Collector of Internal Revenue:

(1) The original or a photostatic copy of his discharge certificate from the branch of the Armed Forces of the United States where he rendered services. The veteran shall not have to present the original or photostatic copy of his discharge certificate each year, provided he leaves a photostatic copy of these papers in the archives of the collector.

(2) Written certificate from an official of the Veterans' Administration attesting to the veteran's degree of disability as of the 1st of January immediately preceding the taxable year for which he is requesting exemption. In those cases that the veteran's degree of disability has been established as a permanent, the veteran shall not be obligated to present evidence of the degree of his disability annually, it being sufficient that the veteran file a certificate with the collector to the effect that his degree of disability has been established as permanent.

(3) Sworn statement attesting that the property in question was being used as the residence of the veteran or his immediate family on the 1st of January immediately preceding the taxable year for which he is

requesting exemption. The tax exemption shall cease as soon as the property is no longer being used as the residence of the veteran or his immediate family; or he recovers his normal capacity; or his degree of disability is reduced in less than fifty (50) percent, as certified by the Federal Government's Veterans' Administration. The right to exemption is recoverable once the veteran again constitutes his home on the former property, acquires another property and establishes his dwelling or permanent residence thereupon, or recovers his status as a veteran with a disability of fifty (50) percent or more. The partial disability exemption shall be granted in addition to the regular exemption of five thousand (5,000) dollars granted to all veterans, and in addition to any other exemption granted by the Commonwealth to the taxpayers. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby empowered to promulgate the rules and regulations needed regarding this exemption and the same shall have force of law as soon as they are approved by the governor.

Third: Automobiles of Injured Veterans. (A) The automobiles furnished to injured veterans by, or with the