Protests over City construction chaos
THE GROWING scandal over unregulated construction and renovation in Panama City brought members of the Citizens’ Urban Network to City Hall on Wednesday, July 27, to register their displeasure with Mayor Jose Isabel Blandon, over what they consider the “chaos” that exists.
Maria Chavez, president of the group, said there has been a lack of action by municipal authorities, especially the Mayor of Panama, to the “illegalities” in various construction
The irregularities are occurring in Altos del Golf, Clayton, Albrook, Paitilla, Bethania and Pacora, demonstrators said. They added that there have not been “forceful” actions by the authorities to stop them..
Chavez said that the council currently has 33 demolition orders, that so far have not been executed.
The chaos, she said causes enormous damage to the quality of life of citizenswith the lack of drinking water, excessive noise, the proliferation of illegal business, bad condition of roads, among others. “We ask that other municipalities do not imitate this,” she said.
Messages like “No more outrages”, “No zoning changes” and “No to the mangrove concessions” were among banners carried by the demonstrators.
Chavez said she intended to meet with Blandon but it never happened.
Instead Blandon passed the buck to Jeaninne Sanchez,of the Municipal Directorate of Works and Construction and announced in a statement that the complaints were being reviewed case by case .
