Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s State-owned Electric Utility (CDEEE) on Tuesday admitted in court that it lacks the legal documents to use the land where it builds two coal-fired plants at Punta Catalina, Peravia Province, since over one year ago.
The request for an injunction filed by the National Committee to Combat Climate Change (CNLCC) before the Superior Arbitration Court seeks to order Utility CEO Ruben Jimenez Bichara to immediately produce the documents which authorize the use of the land for the plants.
However the CDEEE’s lawyers told the court, both in writing and verbally, they couldn’t deliver the documents because they didn’t exist.
They said the CDEEE, acting under president Danilo Medina’s emergency declaration over the national electricity system, had begun construction without any agreement with the land owners and therefore without titles, and without sales or lease contracts.
The said nonetheless that the government could declare eminent domain if necessary, if there’s no agreement with the owners, the Vicini group.
CNLCC attorney Dario Coronado in court said the CDEEE violated the law when it started construction of the plants, and should’ve obtained the declaration of eminent domain and paid the rightful owners.
The panel court said it will hand down its ruling on the case in the coming days.