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Daily News - 16 February 2001
President Mejia unaware of use of park for Pan Am Games
President Mejia said he was unaware of the project to build eight sports venues on grounds of the Mirador del Este Park that surrounds the Columbus Lighthouse Monument, on the East Side of Santo Domingo. The Organizing Committee of the 2003 Santo Domingo Pan-American Games has plans to use 25,000 square meters of the 650,000 square meters of the park to build a 5,000 person amphitheater, children's play area, picnic area, outdoor archery, tennis, volleyball and basketball courts, and covered handball, table tennis, badminton, gymnastics pavilions, a RD$120 million investment.
Leonardo Macarulla, architect of the project said that the site was chosen over the original areas adjacent to the V Centenario Race Track because they sought an area with good circulation of people to guarantee the permanent use of the installations.
Minister of Environment opposes use of Park for sports venues
Meanwhile, Hoy and El Caribe newspapers report that Minister of Environment, Frank Moya Pons does not agree with the use of the park for the construction of sports venues. He said no kind of construction should go up in protected areas. For the construction of sports complexes there is sufficient land elsewhere in Santo Domingo, he said. He suggested land located between the San Isidro Air Base and the V Centenario Race Track. "There is no need to use land that is part of national parks, and above all, the Mirador del Este Park, the eastern side of Santo Domingo's only green zone," he said.
The matter hit the press when former President Joaquin Balaguer, under whose government the park was built, signed a letter of concerned citizens that reject the construction of the sports venues at the park.
Recently, the executive vice president of the Pan Am Games, Raul Barrientos said that the Games would cost the country RD$1,499.4 million (about US$90 million).
Homes for disaster victims
President Hipolito Mejia authorized the construction of two large refugee centers to house victims of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and fires. He said that the refugees would serve as temporary lodging in times of emergency. Radhames Lora Salcedo, director of Civil Defense made the announcement. He said that the refugees would go up adjacent to the Ozama and Isabela rivers in the East Side of Santo Domingo, and to the Haina river in the West Side of the city. He said they will be divided into women's and men's areas and will be fitted to offer technical courses for youth and adults when they are not being used to house evacuated persons.
President snaps at legal advisor
President Hipolito Mejia responded in a cutting way when asked about the recent comments of the legal advisor Guido Gomez Mazara regarding police repression of a march of physicians. Gomez Mazara described the police repression to a group of medics that would have marched from the Dominican Medical Association to the Congress to protest a social security bill as "excesses."
President Mejia said, "That is not his problem, he is legal advisor, those are my attributions."
Accused of being intellectual author of crime, sits at table of honor of Air Force
During the ceremony of the celebration of the 53rd Anniversary of the Dominican Air Force all were surprised to note that none other than former General Salvador Lluberes Montas was invited to sit with President Hipolito Mejia at the table of honor. Lluberes Montas (Chinino) is implicated in the murder of journalist Orlando Martinez, assassinated on 17 March 1975 by Dominican military. The case against Lluberes Montas was left pending for trial when he was left out of the case due to serious health problems alleged by his relatives. The judicial authorities allowed the General to keep domiciliary arrest.
More discussions of social security bill
Representatives of all involved sectors met yesterday at the National Palace to continue discussions. The talks lasted three hours and at the end were narrowed down to three main points of conflict. The sectors will meet again today. The only opponent to the bill is the Dominican Medical Association whose spokesmen say the bill wants to privatize health care in the DR.
Watch it with the merge of the National Police and Amet police
Onesimo Gonzalez is happy about the merge of the National Police transit agents with the organization he directs. He says it is not an improvised move; it had been on the table for four months. Hamlet Hermann, first director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET) urges caution, though. He says there are problems because AMET and AMETRASAN operate only in Santo Domingo and Santiago and the national police has national jurisdiction.
Gonzalez explains the idea is to integrate the National Police agents as members of the Policia Metropolitana de Transporte that was created in 1998 and has 600 agents in Santo Domingo and Santiago.
Hermann urged that in the merge the regulations of AMET for recruiting agents be respected. To be an Amet agent one has to be 20-35 years of age, have a minimum high school degree, comply with set height and weight specifications, have a psychological profile to deal with people, athletic look, and comply with a series of ethical and moral conditions set so that Amet police are efficient in their work. This has worked, and Amet policemen, have won the respect of the population.
Amet policemen are paid upwards of RD$5,000, which is double what a National Police transit agent was paid. As a result, Amet policemen were known to not be corrupt, which can not be said for their National Police colleagues.
Hermann says he agrees with the merge, but urses that Amet be given an adequate budget and that it not be a mechanical transfer, rather that agents be subject to the same requirements demanded of Amet agents. He cautioned that if the police are not pre-selected, then Amet will be contaminated.
Interestingly, today chief of the Police, Mayor General Pedro de Jesus Candelier was in charge of recruiting the first AMET agents when he was deputy director of that organization. As per a recent presidential decree, the National Police and the AMET will work together for the merge.
Emam Zade says FTA with Central America needs to be signed
The former chief of trade negotiations of the nation, Frederic Emam Zade told the Listin Diario newspaper that if the country does not sign the Free Trade Agreement with Central America its international image will be affected as well as its capacity to be taken seriously for future negotiations of this kind. He said Dominicans will be taken as charlatans. He said particular interests have kept the treaty from being signed by the Senate. He also said that there are sectors in the Congress that hope to profit from passing the treaty.
He said the treaty is beneficial for the country, as the nation was able to exempt 23 products from duty free treaty, while Central America's negative list only includes nine items. He said that the values for the exports of those items are insignificant. He said that to not sign the agreement would affect millions of Central American and Dominicans, all for political interests and those of some private interests, that do not have the arguments to justify their opposition.
One of the points of controversy revolves around the exemption of 2,200 tons of milk that Costa Rica would be able to export to the DR, duty free. He said that the Costa Rican negotiations are sought to export 6,000 tons, which was reduced to 2,200 tons. Former Minister of Industry & Commerce Luis Manuel Bonetti has been linked to having favored this import. But Frederic Emam Zade says that the decision was not a particular one of the minister, and was taken by the representatives of the agriculture sector that were present during the negotiations.
President appoints Minister of Industry & Commerce to negotiate FTA with Central America
President Hipolito Mejia appointed Minister of Industry & Commerce Angel Lockward to complete negotiations with Central American nations as to the signing of the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Decree 211-01 authorized the Minister of Industry and Commerce to conclude the negotiations. Lockward met with the ambassadors of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala to discuss the agreement.
Work to begin on Puerto Plata airport runway
The director of the Gregorio Luperon International Airport in Puerto Plata, Michael Nicolaa announced that works would commence this month on the revamping of the Puerto Plata airport runway. He said Aerodom would be investing RD$20 million in the rehabilitation of the runway. The runway is three kilometers long. Of these 1.3 kilometers will be reconditioned. He said the work will be carried out from 11 pm to 7 am to not interrupt normal flight operations.
Tax Bureau explains 1.5% advance tax
The Dirección General de Impuestos Internos said that the main focus of the 1.5% advance sales tax are the 500 businesses with income of more than RD$25 million a year that have systematically declared losses. He said that the businesses have found ways to not pay taxes by declaring high expenditures and thus report earnings of an average of an average of only 2% a year. He said that 1.5% tax on gross sales seeks to correct the distortion of the companies that present losses every year and others that present excessive expenses.
Tours from Haiti to give birth in DR
El Siglo newspaper reports on the increasing number of Haitian women that take "tours" to give birth in the Hospital Regional Jose Maria Cabral y Baez, the leading public hospital in Santiago. The director of the center, Dr. Daniel Espinal says that in 2000, they attended over 1,200 Haitian women that showed up at the emergency halls about to give birth. He said that he has reports that they come as part of organized programs whereby they wait at the frontier until their labor pains intensify and then they are transported to the hospital. He said that each birth costs the hospital about RD$30,000, as most of the births have to be by c-section as the clinical history of the patients is unknown. The Haitians do not have to pay anything to give birth in the Santiago public hospital.
El Siglo newspaper interviewed lawyer Henry Amboise, who is known to accompany several of the Haitians who come to give birth and he said that the hospital has great repute among Haitians. "I always bring my Haitian brothers to this hospital because here they are treated well as humans, and the physicians attend them without any discrimination," said Amboise, a Haitian who works as a language teacher, after being exiled in the DR.
AA pilot saves many from tragedy at Las Americas Airport
An American Airlines pilot was quick to abort a takeoff avoiding crashing into a landing airplane on Wednesday, 14 February. The authorities have not yet clarified the incident, but it appears that the air controller simultaneously gave permission to land and take off to two pilots. The pilot of Airbus 300, flight 882 of American Airlines, upon becoming aware of the situation, abruptly stopped the airplane sending it to the taxiway and avoiding a collision. The airplane suffered the blowout of two of its tires and problems with its breaking system, and had to be towed to parking area seven of the Las Americas International Airport. The passengers of the 3:45 pm flight waited until 8:30 pm to leave for Miami. News reports say the controller was arrested and is under investigation for negligence on the job.
PRSC calls government disappointing, impetuous and full of improvisations
Guillermo Caram, speaking in the name of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, the leading opposition party, he said that the first six months of the Mejia government have been full of disappointments, impetuousness and improvisations. He said that this attitude is creating social nervousness.
He commented on the police confrontation with physicians of the Dominican Medical Association that would have marched to protest a social security bill. Caram said that the measures taken by the government to introduce reforms in the police by decree to correct excesses of that institution before the physicians are nothing but another manifestation of impetuousness and improvisation. "This government so far has been disappointing, we have not seen any concrete realization, nor achievement on behalf of the authorities, of the government; all there have been are preparations and announcements that seek to compensate the present deficiencies with future promises," he told El Siglo newspaper. He said that the government has spent its time naming commissions that resolve nothing. He said that the government bureaucracy has considerably increased and that at this pace the money for social welfare will be consumed by personnel expenditures. He said there is a hypertrophied public administration.
Judge absolves Partenio Ortiz and Hugo Bueno Pascal
After 14 years of hearings, the former director of the Corporacion Dominicana de Empresas Estatales and of the Compañía Dominicana de Aviacion during the Salvador Jorge Blanco PRD government were absolved from charges. They had been accused in 1986 by then Attorney General Julio Cesar Castaños Espaillat of fraud against the state regarding RD$5 million for the acquisition of aircraft and alleged overvaluing of the new CDA office building.
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