Medina’s speech reveals ‘disconnect’ with Dominican reality

Santo Domingo.- President Danilo Medina "seems to beisolated from the Dominican reality or was talking about another country,perhaps about Switzerland, since he described things that don’t exist in ourcountry," Alliance for Democracy presidential candidate Minou TavarezMirabal said Sunday.

"Just go to any hospital in the country to face thereality of a public health system which neither looks anywhere near what hedescribed nor provided figures. Our country has the lowest health budget investmentin the entire region, less than 2% of GDP goes to health," she said.

She also criticized the president for in her view failing toexplain to the country why his government is building the wrold’s most pollutingand expensive coal power plants at Punta Catalina "when power could begenerated lower economic and environmental cost ".

"The economic cost of these plants, whose cost hasbeen ballooned by the high levels of corruption we all know, which we will all pay,business leaders, students, housewives, and workers, taking money from ourpockets for the corruption network around these plants. But we also have to paythe environmental cost from high carbon emissions that we have in our countryand the president did not say a word about that, " she said.

She said Medina should explain to the country why he has yetto lower the price of electricity despite considerably lower costs. “The priceper kilowatt hour could be reduced by 35% and I promise to spur from mygovernment, tighter costs generation, a pricing formula and to maintain the system.”