Journalist reveals names in government-built condo scandal

Santo Domingo. – Despite that one of the key requirements to acquire a government built apartment is not having any property, at least 27 of those who obtained one of the condos in the controversial Residencial El Progreso on Luperon Avenue, already own one.

"While in effect its rules must be complied with and it can not make any exceptions," said the lawyer Olivo Rodriguez Huertas, interviewed by the journalist Alicia Ortega, who investigated 150 of the buyers of the units from the National Housing Institute (INVI).

Among the most prominent cases figure Sagie Altagracia Roedán Mateo, an official in the previous Office of the First Lady, who had already obtained an apartment in the Residencial Jose Contreras, of the INVI.

Another case is Ana Rita Espejo, a Banks Superintendence official and widow of the late PLD leader Quilvio Cabrera, who has two more properties, whose total worth is around RD$4.4 million

Air Force deputy chief Juan Manuel Hernandez Puig also owns an apartment in Bella Vista, worth RD$5.7 million.

Another figure on the list is Ligia Josefina Melo Cardona, daughter of Higher Education minister Ligia Amada Melo, with another apartment valued at RD$6,254,960.

Others

Army colonel Oscar Leonel Ares Gomez , son the Invi legal consultant general Rafael Diaz Gomez; Accounts Chamber member and ex La Vega deputy and governor Alfredo Antonio Cruz Polanco; INVI official Alan Abdel Emilio Genao Aude; Supreme Court justices Juan Hirohito Reyes Cruz, Francisco Mena Antonio Jerez, and Jose Alberto Cruceta Almanzar.

Also San Cristobal Land Court Judge Mercedes Peralta Cuevas, and Andrea Milady Rivas Fernández.

More cases

Constitutional Court official Amin Rafael Castillo Vasquez; Bar Association president Diego Jose Arquimedes Garcia Ovalles, Central Bank security department director Eufemio Nicolás Peña Mancebo, Robert Reid hospital Director Emilio Mena Castro and Deputy Sports Minister Marcos Aurelio Díaz Domínguez (Marcos Diaz).

Also Angel Guillermo Arsenio Tejada Tio, Anulfo Pina Perez, Carmen Reneida Reyes Vargas, David Antonio Montero García, Domingo González Artiles, José Gabriel Fernández Gómez, Josefina Bernardina de la M. Reynoso Chicón, Juan César Augusto Meléndez Espinal, Manuel Emilio Galván Luciano, Mercedes Josefina del C. Guillén Marcelino, Milcia Rosa Mejía Puello and Milagros Inocencia Luna M. de Romero.