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Daily News - 15 January 2001
30 provinces now in the DR
As of Sunday, there are 30 provinces in the Dominican Republic and a National District. San Jose de Ocoa became the 30th province, the result of efforts of local promoters who feel that this will foster the development of the community. Father Luis Quinn, a community spokesman, expressed his hope that now as a province San Jose de Ocoa would be able to develop its agriculture and eco tourism potential. His efforts to turn San Jose de Ocoa into a province met with the support of politicians who saw it as an opportunity to create more jobs for their partisans.
The capital of the province will be San Jose de Ocoa. The new province, previously part of the province of Peravia, has an extension of 840 kilometers and a population of 110,000 inhabitants.
President Mejía says he authorized condoning aviation debt
President Hipólito Mejía said he authorized the 29 December condoning of a RD$86 million debt of national airlines. The actual condoning though is pending senatorial approval, though. President Mejía said the domestic airlines were hard hit by the government's failure to restore their right to fly to the US. The measure sought to avoid the bankruptcy of the airlines. "The situation [inability to fly to the US] was not their fault, nor were they responsible for Dominicana Airlines problems or for the lack of prestige in the market, or for the government having spent millions of dollars and accomplished nothing [referring to the CAB-ICAO project to restore the ability to fly]," President Mejía told reporters when interviewed in San Jose de Ocoa.
Several sectors have complained that this is granting a privilege to one sector, while so many other sectors are being penalized by the new taxes created by the government.
Meanwhile, the vice president of the Association of National Airlines, Raymundo Polanco said that the sectors that have protested the condoning respond primarily to the interests of foreign corporations that have plotted with aviation authorities to keep the DR airlines from flying to the US. There has been a ban on Dominican airlines flying to the US since 1993.
State university graduates only 15% of enrollment
El Siglo reports that in the past four years the UASD only graduated 15% of the students that were admitted. In the past four years only 14,818 students graduated. During that period, the average enrollment of the university was 97,741.
In the past ten years, the university has only graduated 44,359. The graduates were: 16,874 from the School of Humanities; 9,760 from the School of Economic and Social Sciences; 7,160 from the School of Health Sciences; 4,146 from the School of Engineering and Architecture; 4,049 from the School of Judicial and Political Sciences 923 from the School of Sciences and 82 from the School of Agronomy.
Rector Miguel Rosado said that the low graduation level is due to the chaos that students find in the university. Tirso Mejia Ricart said student desertion is due to the lack of short technical careers that are more in line with the income needs of the students. UASD statistics also show that only 8% of those that enter public school system graduate from high school.
CDE controversial tender for voice, data, and cable
The Dominican Association of Cable Companies firmly opposes the intent of an Unión Fenosa affiliate to enter the business of cable TV and telecommunication market by benefiting from a Dominican Electricity Corporation monopoly.
Legal spokesman for the company point out that Unión Fenosa came to the DR as an advisor to the Dominican Electricity Corporation under a RD$180 million Interamerican Development Bank program to rescue the Dominican Electricity Corporation from economic and financial collapse. Instead of achieving the object of the program, Unión Fenosa moved to become one of the owners of the CDE, participating and winning the tender for the privatization of distribution. The company today is responsible for power distribution of 2/3 of the DR. The company also now is one of the major generators of power.
The cable companies request that the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL) oppose that firm's intent to win the tender for the project to supply, install and operate optical fiber cables on the high tension lines of the CDE. The cable companies say that no company should be granted a monopoly on these lines.
They say they do not oppose the execution of the project but that Indotel should manage it and that all parties are allowed to participate.
News reports say that in addition to the cable companies, others that have shown an interest are Codetel, Tricom, Centennial, ITT, Lucent Technology and Sprint.
An orgy of price increases
Weekend newspapers pointed out the across the border increases in goods sold locally that has occurred in January. The increases have occurred after the passing of the new taxes by the government. The new taxes call for businesses to make monthly payments of 1.5% on income tax, and called for increases on tax paid on imports, as well as increased the value-added tax from 8 to 12% while expanding the base on which it would be applied. As a result, prices of almost all articles have been adjusted upward 20-30%. Despite the widespread support the PRD has within almost all local sectors, complaints are starting to be heard because everyone is confronted with the higher prices.
El Siglo reports that representatives of businessmen associations in Santiago said that the measures are bringing about an increase in inflation and will cause industries and business to go bankrupt, with the consequential firing of employees and reduction of foreign investment.
A Hoy newspaper editorial calls what has occurred an "orgy of price increases." It criticizes the government for entertaining society with announcements of a forthcoming "paquetazo social" or series of measures to compensate the lower income sectors for the new prices.
Paternalism no, community efforts, yes
Hoy newspaper points to the skepticism the government announcement of Year 2001 as Year for the Fight against Poverty. Residents in the DR saw the year start with the domino effect of price increases of almost all items, as a result of new taxes. The newspaper points out that the civic society favors combating poverty with grass roots efforts, not from above with gifts and promotion of paternalism. The Alianza ONG, Centro de Estudios Sociales Padre Juan Montalvo, Ciudad Alternativa y Coordinadora de Organizaciones para la Defensa de los Derechos Barriales coincided that poverty should be combated with jobs and adequate policies, not with political favors.
Former President urges elimination of 5% charge on foreign exchange transactions
Former President Leonel Fernandez broke his silence to urge the Mejia administration to eliminate the 5% charge on exchange transactions. He said that the 5% was only justified while the government did not increase fuel prices. He said that with the increase of fuel prices, and the increase of ITBIS, and the tax on select items, there is no longer a need for the 5% charge. He said that his government had proposed an increase of the ITBIS on products already being taxed. And that the Mejía government expanded the number of items that would have to pay the ITBIS. He said that while the original intent was to compensate the reduction of government income as a result of reducing import tariffs, what the Mejía government chose to carry out was an overall increase in its income by the creation of new taxes. He said that this is untimely given the high price of fuel, and that what is resulting is an increase of inflation and an overall increase in the cost of living.
"This is not the time to have burdened the people with these measures that will deteriorate their standard of living, which makes the people irritated and mad," said Fernández when interviewed at the PLD National Convention. "The people now believe that what was sold to them as a government with a human face does not match reality," he said.
Mr. Competition is at it again
Antonio Turbí, the Dominican Quixote who made a name for himself defying all odds to foster competition, announced a two-week sale of gasoline at his three stations. Turbí is offering to return to consumers RD$2.00 on each gallon of gasoline purchased. A Ministry of Industry and Commerce ruling stopped him from dropping the price of gasoline he sells when he did so last year, but nothing stops him from giving consumers money back for each purchase. News reports say that Turbí has suffered pressures from his gasoline supplier and from the association of gasoline station owners that don't like competition.
The cheaper gasoline is available at his Los Alcarrizos (Santo Domingo), Universitaria (Santiago) and Piedra Linda (La Romana) gas stations from 13 to 20 January.
Turbí says that sales are up, and his earnings, too. News reports say that there were lines at his Estrella Sadhalá gas station in Santiago over the weekend.
Shopping spree with government credit card
El Siglo newspaper publishes the story of a former director of the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS), Sabino Baez that over a 10-month period irregularly charged to his government credit card RD$736,000 in goods and services. The story of corruption in government is another of a long list that usually appears at the time of change of government and reveals nothing more than the lack of controls existent in government to ensure the adequate spending of tax payer monies.
Most of the charges were for clothes, restaurant bills, supermarket and entertainment expenditures. The director during his travels made charges for these items to France, Spain, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico and Miami. The news story reports of his bills at the Gap, Bostonian, Corte Ingles and Galeries Lafayette stores.
Of the total RD$418,000 were charges in pesos and US$18,734 in dollars made during trips abroad. The position had an allotment of RD$15,000 a month for expenditures. An analysis of the expenditures says that while the restaurant bills could be justified as well as the purchase of gifts, there is no justification for the supermarket bills.
The same news story also refers to irregular charges made by the secretary of the organization, Angela Mendez de Garrido, who had an allotment of RD$5,000 for expenditures, and charged RD$97,481 (RD$72,89 pesos and US$1,446 dollars) during a five month period.
PLD creates acting president
The PLD accepted the creation of the position of acting president while establishing in its by laws that the spokesman for the party will be the secretary general. The PLD during its National Convention also determined that the spokesman for the Political Committee will be the secretary general and the former president and vice president of the Republic. The Secretary General will be the coordinator of the central committee and the political committee. The central committee membership was increased to 300 members from 150 members. Former President Leonel Fernandez said he would decline the position of acting president if it is offered to him. The president of the party is Juan Bosch, who is very ill.
15 year old kills nine year old in traffic accident
A general alert is out to permissive parents. Yesterday, as a result of a car race between two youths, a nine year old boy was killed. The accident occurred when Nathanel Montero Martínez was waiting with his bicycle to cross the Avenida de Los Próceres and the 15-year old rammed into the sidewalk when driving a Toyota Camry in which he was said to be racing a friend of his who was driving a Honda Integra. The accident occurred on Saturday at around 5 pm in front of a stretch of the Botanical Gardens. The boy resided at the nearby Villa Marina neighborhood.
The press again urged parents to restrain their sons from the weekend speed competitions along Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln avenues to avoid another tragedy.
Breast-feeding saves 12 that were lost at sea
Listin Diario publishes today that a recent mother agreed to breastfeed 12 fellow passengers of 17 on board a small boat that had attempted to make it to Puerto Rico but failed. The boat was rescued near Nisibón along the eastern coastline. The family members of the passengers had alerted authorities that the boat had left on 3 January and that they hadn't heard from their relatives since. The survivors said they had paid RD$6,000 to make the crossing. They spent 12 days at sea. Several of the survivors were hospitalized due to severe dehydration.
Winter Pro Baseball semi-finals
The Escogido Lions continue to lead the semi-finals of the Dominican Winter Professional Baseball League. For the game schedules, see http://www.dr1.com/daily/calendar.shtml
 TEAM  WON  LOST  PCT.  DIF.
 Escogido  9  s  .818  
 Aguilas  6  5  .545  3
 Azucareros  4  7  .364  5
 Estrellas  3  8  .273  6
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