OPINION: Environmental devastation
The extension of the Omar Torrijos road has become an icon of predatory devastation and government negligence. Its adverse impact on 13 hectares of the Camino de Cruces National Park generated well-founded questions that led environmental organizations, residents of the area and the Municipality of Panama to present an unprecedented criminal complaint against the MOP and Miambiente. In its hurry to start up this project, the authorities did not take into account designs that could avoid or reduce affectations; nor were alternatives that were not invasive to avoid damage to the protected area examined. As if that were not enough, when the work was 10% complete and the forest had been destroyed, the MOP took out an unusual trick from its top hat, when initiating procedures to terminate the contract signed with the consortium in charge of the project, based on a series of breaches. Since then, the works are paralyzed without anybody from the outgoing government giving coherent explanations about their immediate future. The present impasse offers an opportunity for the new authorities to investigate the irregularities that have distinguished this project, consider congruent mitigation measures – if any at this point – and sanction in an exemplary manner those who exhibited such a display of irresponsibility, failing, at the same time, to do their duties as public servants. – LA PRENSA, July 7