Why did Medina cut continuing the Metro?
The Presidential Legal Advisor, Cesar Pina Toribio, said yesterday, Wednesday 20 November that President Danilo Medina "had his reasons" for excluding the second Metro line from the 2014 Budget. Pina Toribio spoke to reporters from El Caribe in response to comments by Diego de Moya Canaan, who said that Medina would pay a high political cost for not continuing to fund the construction of the Metro. "Of course De Moya Canaan is the president of the Dominican Chamber of Construction, which has certain interests in the extension of the Santo Domingo Metro," said Pina Toribio. Line 2 was originally budgeted at RD$4 billion for 2014, but the President cut it back to RD$1.2 billion. As a result of the budget cut, the Transport Reorganization Office (Opret) withdrew the heavy machinery and personnel working on the line that was due to cross the Ozama River and take the Metro into Santo Domingo East.
I heard from a good source Metro is not only gone from the 2014 budget, but also from the 2015 and 2016 budget.