Ministry and mayor pass buck on construction project

A GOVERNMENT  Ministry and   Panama City”s mayor  are playing “dodge the bullet” or “pass the buck” with a Supreme Court ruling that should have stopped work on a controversial project in a residential district.

In Albrook residents are outraged   after the Ministry of Housing and Land Management  and  Panama City Works and Buildings Department  ignored a Court decision that suspended the zoning change for the Plaza Atenea project.

On March 30, the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court issued an “interim suspension” of the zoning changes approved by the Ministry in 2010 and 2014.

The zoning changed the designation from residential to mixed commercial.

However, the order of the court has not been heeded by either.

A  La Prensa tour of the project being carried out by Inmobiliaria Armonía, showed that machinery was moving earth and workers were constructing columns for the project.

Resident Max Crowe said the project is bad for the health and quality of life of the people living near it.

He said that both the ministry and the municipality were informed of the decision, but they have allowed the work to continue.

Ministry official Juan Manuel Vásquez said that it is the municipality, and not the ministry, that must take action on the matter.

Mayor José Isabel Blandón said that the order applies to the ministry, and not to the municipality.

“If the court had suspended the work, we would have acted. But there is no order from the court to that effect,” said Blandón.

Inmobiliaria Armonía officials would like the issue to disappear and told La Prensa  said that the matter “should not be debated in the media” and that the company is operating legally.