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Residents and merchants of the Municipality of Culebra agreed in a meeting at 5pm on

July 25, 2018, not to accept the increase in the fare and cargo rates presented by the
Maritime Transport Authority, for the following reasons:

1. The service of Shipping to Culebra is a critical public service that we all have the
right to receive in a safe, reliable and affordable way. Otherwise, we would be
limited access to other essential services for our quality of life, such as safe and
affordable access to education, medical care and access to goods and services not
available in Culebra, as well as for safe and economical transportation of fuel to the
island. In addition, we depend heavily on tourism and therefore depend on this
critical service and that the Maritime Transport Authority provides safe, reliable and
efficient services for both residents and visitors who support the economy of the
island.

2. We understand that the proposed deadline of September 1, 2018, does not comply
with the law that governs the procedures of the Maritime Transportation Authority,
specifically the "Uniform Law for the Revision and Modification of Tariffs," Act No.
21 of 31 May 1985, as amended.

3. The increase in rates is supported and justified by a work called Desirability and
Convenience Study for the Puerto Rico Maritime Transportation Services Project
published in April 2018 by the Public-Private Partnerships Authority of Puerto Rico
to work with the transportation service maritime towards the islands municipalities.
This study does not comply with the current reality of the island municipalities after
the last hurricane season and is very ambiguous. Even today, they have not been
presented or discussed with the community or translated into Spanish. In addition,
the study was developed from a very limited data set collected through a survey
between August 3 and August 10, 2015. Apart from this study, we have not
received any other work that justifies the increases in tariff for this service so
important for all.

4. The ATM has not shown commitment or analyze how they propose to improve
services, vessels, treatment of the public, and improvements to current facilities.
For the past few years, the treatment of the public has been highlighted as being
deficient, disrespectful and discriminatory; and outside the itinerary, especially in
times of greatest need for the municipality islands.

5. The process of developing the Public Private Partnership (PPP) for maritime
transport services has been poor; It is vital that it be a transparent and informed
one. A decision as important and far-reaching as this should not be made without
due process of public participation, well designed and effective; to ensure that the
residents and traders of Culebra are the first ones informed about the alternatives to
solve the current problem with maritime public transport and the first to pass
judgment on the possible courses of action to solve it, since we are the first to be
affected by the consequences of the decisions that are made.

6. A key point in the process to solve this problem is to define who is a resident, who
is a worker and who is a visitor, a task that has not yet been clarified and that
entails the active assistance of a citizen committee for each island municipality in
order to identify them fairly. To date, there is no viable mechanism to accurately
identify users of the maritime transport service and that can be implemented before
September 1.

7. The bankruptcy of our country affects us all; the opportunities of the islands are
limited by the service they offer, tourism is our main source of income, the costs for
tourists in the island municipalities is already high, and increasing the rates in the
way they propose, would not only make the Visit these to the municipality islands
but it would also significantly increase the cost of living in Culebra. The ATM is not a
money-making entity, it is a public agency created to provide an essential service
on which all residents of the municipality's islands depend. Therefore, although we
recognize the need to increase rates in times of fiscal crisis, we demand respect for
the residents and merchants of the island municipality of Culebra; we demand a real
and effective public participation process, and we request the creation of a
community and multisector advisory board to facilitate the definition of the resident
as well as the communication between government agencies and the sectors that
will be affected by the PPP. Only in this way can the necessary dialogues be
started to avoid a social displacement and the significant degradation of the quality
of life of the Culebra resident in the future. -

The People and Business Owners of Culebra

Sign ons submitted at public hearing…..

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