Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 21 april 2017
Puerto Rico pushes to privatize operation of services Duterte:
A bounty for

DANICA COTO parking and recreation fa- Officials have identified can be the lead in invest- extremists in
Associated Press cilities, information tech- at least 30 projects that ments or projects ... That
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) nology, renewable energy would benefit from being can only be led by the pri- foiled at-
— Puerto Rico is ready to and natural gas projects. run by a private company vate sector.”
sign dozens of new deals “We’ve been so aggres- and said they would guar- It’s been roughly four years tack
to privatize the operation
of public services as gov- MANILA, Philippines (AP)
ernment funds dwindle — Philippine President Ro-
amid an economic reces- drigo Duterte offered a
sion, the island’s governor bounty this week for the
told some 800 investors at- capture of Muslim extrem-
tending a two-day finan- ists behind a foiled attack
cial summit on Thursday. on a central resort island,
Gov. Ricardo Rossello and said he ordered the
said public-private part- navy to bomb militants who
nerships could create up travel by boat in search of
to 100,000 new jobs and kidnap victims.
generate some $5 billion The tough-talking leader
for a U.S. territory mired in told reporters during a visit
a decade-long economic to central Bohol province
crisis and facing a $70 bil- that he was considering to
lion public debt load that it arm civilians there so they
is struggling to restructure. can help the government
“We are not leaving things fight terrorists and drug sus-
to chance,” he said, not- pects, adding he prefers
ing that Puerto Rico has no outlaws dead than alive.
access to capital markets. “I encourage civilians also
“We are building a govern- to kill because these are
ment that recognizes we wanted dead or alive with
can’t do everything.” a reward, but I prefer them
Most public-private part- Gov. Ricardo Rossello participates in a forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is ready to sign dead because if they’re
nerships on the U.S. main- dozens of new deals to privatize the operation of public services as government funds dwindle alive I would have to feed
land involve transportation amid an economic recession. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti) them ... and that’s very ex-
projects, but officials said pensive,” Duterte said.
the scope would be much sive about this because we antee badly needed main- since Puerto Rico last His visit came a week af-
wider in Puerto Rico and ter troops, backed by air-
that the projects would have no other option,” said tenance and upgrades the signed a deal to privatize strikes, battled Abu Sayyaf
Omar Marrero, executive government cannot afford.
the operation of public
not require legislative ap- fighters, leaving four mili-
proval. The government director of the Authority of Puerto Rico can no longer services without complete tants, three soldiers, a po-
Public-Private Partnerships. keep financing the bulk of
privatization. The previous
hopes to privatize services liceman and two villagers
including the operation “Either we swim together, the island’s development, governor signed a deal dead. Troops are hunting
or we sink together.”
said Elias Sanchez, the gov-
to privatize operations at
and maintenance of sev- several extremists who es-
eral highways and the un- Government officials have ernment’s representative Puerto Rico’s main interna- caped.
pledged that 25 percent of to a federal control board
tional airport and its busiest
reliable ferry service from The 1 million peso ($20,000)
Puerto Rico to the popu- revenues from those deals overseeing the island’s fi- highway, a move that al- reward is for informa-
lowed a previous adminis-
nances.
will go to the island’s crum-
lar islands of Culebra and tion that would allow the
Vieques. Other projects bling public pension system “It’s just not viable,” he tration to eliminate 60 per- military or police to cap-
cent of the Ports Author-
that is underfunded by $40 said. “Our fiscal situation is
would target waste man- ture the fleeing militants,
agement, student housing, billion and expected to run so challenging that there’s ity’s debt and pay $1 billion Duterte said. He said that
out of money this year. no way the government worth of highway debt. q
informants’ identities would
Leftist party activist killed in southern Mexico be kept confidential.
Military officials said the ex-
tremists traveled far from
their jungle bases in south-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gun- of continued violence, previously occupied a post around 2010. ern Sulu province to carry
men shot to death the like the assassination late in the state government. Gov. Hector Astudillo trav- out kidnappings for ran-
leader of Mexico’s left- Wednesday of Demetrio Guerrero was plagued by eled to Miami to try to con- som and bombings for the
ist Democratic Revolution Saldivar. political violence in the vince cruise ship operators first time in Bohol, a popular
Party in the southern state The state prosecutors’ of- 1990s, but has been hit that safe perimeters had tourism destination for its
of Guerrero, authorities said fice said Thursday that even harder by drug gang been established for pas- white-sand beaches, wa-
Thursday. Saldivar was killed in the violence in recent years. sengers in Acapulco and terfalls, caves and wildlife.
The killing prompted Guer- state capital, Chilpancin- The U.S. cruise line Holland the resort of Zihuatanejo. Asked what could be the
rero’s governor to cut short go. America announced in But Astudillo tweeted that specific target of the mili-
a trip to the United States The office said a witness March that it had halted Saldivar’s killing forced him tants, Duterte said they
aimed at convincing cruise watched as two men port calls at Acapulco and to cut the trip short. might be plotting to disrupt
ship lines that the state’s blocked Saldivar with a would sail to other destina- “These regrettable events a two-day meeting of the
flagship resort, Acapulco, car, then shot and killed tions in the country “due to have forced us to cancel Association of Southeast
was safe enough to bring him before fleeing. recent security concerns.” the planned working trip Asian Nations, which start-
their ships back for visits. Saldivar was general sec- A few other cruise lines and return to Guerrero as ed in Bohol’s resort island
Some cruise ships have retary of the party known continue to make port calls soon as possible,” Astu- of Panglao on Wednesday
stopped visiting the Pa- as the PRD in Guerrero. Lo- in Acapulco, but those vis- dillo wrote in his Twitter and “create a disaster for
cific coast state because cal media reported he had its began to fall off steeply account.q all of us.”q