The Ministry of Public works and Communications delivered the completely rebuilt and renovated parking lot and sidewalks of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Las Mercedes, in Santo Cerro, La Vega province, whose work had been requested by that religious community.
The information was offered by Demetrio Luciano, Director of Operations and Maintenance MOPC Vial, who explained that as soon as the request arrived at this institution, Minister Deligne Ascención instructed its execution.
Luciano said that the parish priest of the church, Porfirio Espinal, told him that he had been requesting for three years that any institution of the State come to their aid, “and Public Works, in the person of Minister Deligne Ascención, has come to repair everything that is the area of parkingthe front part and the interior supply part.”
He reported that 3,000 new bricks were used to carry out the work and others that were already there were reused, and that those who manage the religious and tourist center feel extremely satisfied with the work carried out.
“We, as the Ministry of Public Works, believe that we have complied, and they have not stated this in each of the videos that have been recorded at this location,” he said.
Espinal thanked the minister for the work he had arranged Ascensionand said that the part of the sanctuary where the work was carried out is a historic site “that was very critical, had many holes, the pavement of the road was very destroyed, and the MOPC intervened and did so respecting the norm of what is a historic site.”
He said that thousands of important people pass through the sanctuary every year, including the country’s top authorities, in this case the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader; Vice President Raquel Peña and other high-ranking authorities of the country.
The priest thanked Minister Ascención for his gesture of solidarity and his willingness to serve the communities and the country.
“We thank the Ministry of Public Works in the person of the Minister Deligne Ascension and of engineer Luciano for attending to our request that this be arranged to celebrate the feast of the Virgin of Las Mercedes, who is the patron saint of the Dominican people. And this is a place with a large influx of pilgrims, of tourists who come, not only Dominicans,” he said.
The Santo Cerro sanctuary is a historic place, and it was where the first cross in America was planted and it was the place where the evangelization of the New World began.
Raquel Gómez, director of the school that operates next to the sanctuary, and Carmen Salgado, a Mercedarian sister of Charity, expressed themselves in the same terms, saying they were proud of President Abinader and Minister Ascención, for having arranged the jobs that were carried out there.
