UPDATE ALERT!
Within several days of the published post, the Governor’s office called to confirm the situation. Shortly thereafter, the Kike Tire application was accepted. It took over a month to secure the equipment, but the inspection site is up and running well! While DTOP may have been aware of the unsatisfactory situation, La Fortaleza was not. Thanks to the rapid response of the Governor’s office, our mini-crisis has been rectified.
The bold-faced battle of the bureaucracies at our expense is on. Maybe we should just say no.
DTOP: The marbete
• In order to maintain the currency of a vehicle license, one is required to pay an annual licensing fee and procure insurance. But, before one is allowed to pay these fees, each vehicle is required to obtain a certification that the emissions are compliant and the vehicle has passed a safety test. The published cost of these tests is $11.00.
• Vieques has had only one inspection station, and the operation has been corrupted for at least the last 15 years or more: pay $20.00 and certification is granted without any inspection – it’s just a bribe. Many inspection stations on the main island operate in a similar manner.
• The only inspection station on Vieques has closed, ostensibly, due to DTOP requirements for new equipment.
• Kike Tire applied for a license to perform the inspections about a year and a half ago. Their facility was inspected and passed with flying colors. They still have not received permits or any word on their status.
POLICE DEPARTMENTS: The ticket
• Our inability to secure inspections on the island has definitely NOT deterred our police departments from awarding tickets to those who have expired marbetes.
• When officers are questioned about the reasonableness of this, their responses include: “Not my problem!” and “Just send your paperwork over to one of the inspection sites in Fajardo that will fraudulently certify it for $20.”
ATM: The choke point
• The ferry system is corrupt, extraordinarily poorly run, and lacks cargo/vehicle capacity to even supply and maintain normal life in Vieques – much less allow any economic development. On a good day (and there aren’t enough of them), there are 5 cargo ferries that can transport up to 20 cars and a few trucks per trip. Reservations are nearly impossible, and most residents are told to go “standby”. Often times drivers and vehicles become stranded out overnight.
• There are approximately 6,000 registered vehicles in Vieques, which means that in order to accommodate these inspection trips alone, an additional ferry would be required every day. That is NOT going to happen!
• To add insult to injury, if the marbete has already expired, the ATM will not allow the vehicle on the ferry without a $17.00 DTOP temporary pass.
ATM: The ordeal on a good day
• The cost for the car is $25 ($55 for a van)
• Show at 5:30 am for standby
• Depart at 6:30 am
• Arrive at Fajardo at 8:00 am
• Purchase return ticket at the Fajardo office
• Go to inspection station and be tested
• Return to ferry at 10:00 am
• Depart Fajardo at 1:00 pm
• Arrive Vieques at 2:30 pm
VIEQUES CITIZENS: The whipping boys
• Vieques is a colony of a colony, and as such, has no influence on any governmental issue. All representation is from residents of the main island, not from here. These people only pay lip service to our needs. We are treated as inmates in an institution. We are laughed at in San Juan political circles.
• Vieques is a poor island without adequate infrastructure. The maximum speed limit is 35 MPH. There is not a single operating professional automobile service station capable of typical maintenance or contemporary computer-based diagnostics or tuning.
• Most vehicles are “island cars” that are old and beat up. Most residents cannot afford later model cars or significant maintenance. Working residents cannot afford a full day off to go to the main island for an inspection.
RATIONAL THOUGHT: The solution
• Suspend the inspection requirement in Vieques for a marbete until DTOP/CESCO or whatever authorities need to approve a new inspection facility act; or
• Eliminate the inspection requirement for Vieques completely since it has NEVER been operating legally or effectively; or
• Something else. Most of us try to follow the rules. Most of us believe that laws are not to be broken. But what are we supposed to do when the laws are ridiculous, and the systems are broken? What are we supposed to do when our complaints are ignored? What are we supposed to do when officials are saying they know it’s broken, and here is how you waste your time and money to get around it – or we will give you a ticket? I say you tell them NO! I say we stand together to fight it – in court if necessary. We all know the government is both corrupt and incompetent. This is not a time for the same passivity that has plagued the island forever. Basta ya! Enough of the BS.
This bureaucratic obsession with unreasonable requirements and the resulting illegal response is known by all – yet it is not only tolerated but enforced. We need a rational and trustworthy government, but the world can see that is not what we have here. That is why others don’t wish to risk dealing with Puerto Rico. That is why we will have no significant economic development for the foreseeable future. We need to fight business as usual – IT’S NOT WORKING!