transportation

Veraguas bus union threatens to protest over land sale

Bus union leaders are upset by the government’s lack of support for their plan to purchase land.

Transportation groups in Santiago claim they have eyed the plot, belonging to Union Fenosa, since 2000.

la prensa

outgrown: Members of bus unions in the Veraguas province hope a protest will convince the government to help them purchase outright a plot of land needed to expand the province’s main bus terminal in Santiago.1131896

The leaders of some 57 bus routes in the Veraguas province announced protests would take place next week over the government’s failure to support the purchase of land necessary to expand the bus terminal in the provincial capital city of Santiago.

Bus union members have accused the government of not processing an application to help them buy outright a 13,000 square meter lot belonging to Union Fenosa, of which the government owns 49 percent. The organization has coveted the area for the Santiago terminal expansion project since 2000.

Union leader Jose Concepción said that after four meetings with President Martín Torrijos, who had formalized the union’s request to purchase the land, nothing has come of it.

According to Concepción, the request was made on the basis that the power company’s lot is the only available land viable for expanding the existing transport terminal, which had long outgrown its current site.

Otherwise, the union faced the costlier alternative of building a new structure elsewhere.

“What we wanted was for the government to help resolve the space problem before [Union Fenosa] offered up the land in a competitive bidding process that would be more expensive for carriers and users, who would end up paying for the high price of land,” explained the union leader.

Concepción warned that if Union Fenosa decides to put the land up for sale via a public tender this week, bus drivers would be forced to organize a demonstration that would “paralyze services” during the middle of next week.

A representative for Union Fenosa reported that the case is being handled by the company’s legal department, which is responsible for making a decision on the land sale before the end of this month.

Meanwhile, Veraguas governor Arturo Fabrega suggested that the only recourse available to the bus union members was continued negotiations with the Ministry of Government and Justice and President Torrijos.