President Danilo Medina told media directors that the Bahia de las Aguilas deal is not yet closed. He held a meeting with directors of leading Dominican media yesterday, Tuesday 19 February to listen to their opinions while defending the government’s deal with the property title holders, regardless of whether they were irregularly issued or not. The Medina administration has argued that the solution would enable moving on tourism development in the area.
Huchi Lora, who was present at the event, said that the media heads expressed their concern that the government is making a deal with people who would benefit from fraud, as reported in El Nuevo Diario.
The Medina government has argued the project would bring employment to Pedernales. But the 2010 Census says there are less than 2,000 people who are unemployed in Pedernales, a province with a population of around 31,000. In her Diario Libre page 2 column today, Wednesday 20 February, Ines Aizpun suggests that instead of the proposed deal, ecotourism projects should be developed in the area.
http://www.diariolibre.com/movil/noticias_det.php?id=372229
Journalist Simon Guerrero summarizes sustainable proposals for the development of Pedernales and existing legalities of the area in an article in Diario Libre today, Wednesday 20 February with background on the frequently studied Bahia de las Aguilas beach area.
http://diariolibre.com.do/sociedad/2013/02/20/i372145_bahia-las-aguilas-perpetua-agonia.html
The media group meeting was attended by Persio Maldonado from El Nuevo Diario, Miguel Franjul from Listin Diario, Bienvenido Alvarez Vega from Hoy, Rafael Molina Morillo from El Dia, Ines Aizpun of Diario Libre, Domingo del Pilar of Telemicro, Huchi Lora of TV El Dia, Juan Bolivar Diaz from Uno + Uno and Julio Hazim from Revista 110. The government was represented by legal advisor Cesar Pina Toribio, Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia, Environment Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez, the Senator for Pedernales Dionis Sanchez, Presidency administrative minister Jose Ramon Peralta, Presidency minister Gustavo Montalvo, and Presidential media director Roberto Rodriguez Marchena.
http://elnuevodiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=320285