The Pro Pedernales Trust sent by the Presidency had already passed in the Chamber of Deputies. This past week, senators voted in favor. The ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) is majority in both houses.
Opposition senator Yvan Lorenzo (PLD-Elias Piña) alerted that the Pro Pedernales Trust now approved in the Senate violates fundamental norms and could be contested in court. Lorenzo argues that the figure of public trust does not exist yet in Dominican law.
Lorenzo said the Presidency has submitted a bill to resolve this issue but this has not yet passed in Congress. He criticized that the government is handing state property “to its friends the investors for exploiting for 30 years and at the end they will keep the property.” He said the government is delegating what is its responsibility to private companies. The land of Cabo Rojo was part of the Alcoa bauxite concession.
The public-private trust created for Pro Pedernales has many of the same clauses included in the Punta Catalina Trust bill that led to its delaying until Congress passed a bill specifically on public-private trusts for government entities.
Diario Libre presents a report on what the government says it plans to do in Pedernales.
Read more in Spanish:
Pro Pedernales Trust
El Nuevo Diario
Listin Diario
Diario Libre
11 April 2022