Bus users protest indemnization

Users of diablo rojos complain about the $25,000 given to bus owners

IRLANDA SOTILLO
isotillo@laestrella.com.pa

PANAMA. The first payment of the $25,000 per bus indemnization to diablo rojos owners raised complains from the Movement of Users of Transport. The group’s head, David Ramirez, questioned the fast payment to bus owners compared to the negligence the government has shown towards victims of bus accidents.

Ramirez, who lost his eldest son in the fire that destroyed bus 8B-06 argued, “We recognize that it is the state’s mechanism to remove bad drivers from the system, but all of the users that in one way or another have been affected by the bad transport system should be taken into account.”

Ramirez also sent a message to President Martin Torrijos to remind him that we are all Panamanians, not only the bus drivers.

On Wednesday, the leaders of the National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights released a statement stating that the project is nothing more than the privatization of the transport sector.

They denounce as well that with the payment of the indemnization, politicians will take advantage to make business both with the $25,000 as well as with the purchase of the 420 new buses.

10 bus owners traded in their diablo rojos on Tuesday for a $25,000 check. 10 trade-ins will be held everyday until 420 buses are taken off the streets.

Publicidad