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2002-2006 JCE board The Senate swore in the seven judges that will oversee the 2004 presidential election and the 2006 congressional and municipal election yesterday. Spokesmen for the civic society, the Catholic Church and opposition parties object to the judges chosen last week by the Senate on the grounds that they have a partisan bias to favor the Mejia faction within the ruling PRD party. Other political analysts say that the controls already in place in the electoral system make fraud in the upcoming presidential election unlikely. Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda was re-elected to preside the 2002-2006 Central Electoral Board. The other judges are Luis Nelson Gonzalez Pantaleon, Rafaelina Peralta Arias, Nelson Gomez, Salvador Ramos, Rafael Diaz Vasquez, Luis Arias Nuñez. Their substitutes are Porfirio Hernandez Quezada, Margarita Gil, Jorge Eligio Mendez, Luis Ernesto Brea, Marta Miguelina Figuereo, Luis Mera Alvarez, and Nelson Butten Varona. |
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PRSC to withdraw from Chamber of Deputies The block of deputies of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) announced they would withdraw from the Congress in response to the lack of consensus in the Senate selection of judges. Deputy for Santo Domingo Province Victor Bisono said their retirement would be effective once the deputies are again convened to work, according to the Listin Diario. The deputies have been on hiatus for several weeks due to the commencement of remodeling and modernization works at the Congress which make working on site difficult. He said the party demands that the Senate choose a board of consensus between the civic society and the principal political forces. The Constitution mandates that the Senate elect the Central Electoral Board. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Deputies president Lila Alburquerque says that the chamber is only open for administrative matters. The first session of the deputies elected on 16 May 2002 would have started 20 August. Then Alburquerque decreed a two-week vacation, and shortly afterwards the remodeling and construction works began, thus the very well paid deputies have had time to dedicate themselves to their own affairs. |
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Study criticizes health care at maternity hospitals The Ministry of Public Health temporarily suspended 23 physicians linked to 82 cases of maternal deaths during childbirth at public hospitals. Most of these cases are related to deficiencies in the care provided to the mothers while giving birth. Hoy newspaper says a recent study funded by USAID on the quality of care at public hospitals showed that the physicians that should be attending to the women during childbirth are often absent. The study showed that hundreds of women are instead assisted only by nurses, medical students and interns. Furthermore, the study indicates that patients have to wait long hours to be seen by a physician for short consultations. At one of the hospitals surveyed there were 12 births in one hour, but the most experienced physician in the birthing room was a first-year resident with barely five months on the job. The study was carried out by Family Care International, Engerderhealth as part of the University of North Carolina Project Prime II from 12 November to 6 December 2001. Minister of Public Health Jose Rodriguez Soldevila presented the findings of the study. |
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Photo of Fernandez could not be found Diario Libre revealed yesterday that the photograph of former President Leonel Fernandez is missing from the gallery of former Presidents of the Republic at the National Palace. When Presidential Palace officers were asked why, the explanation was that they did not have a photograph of Fernandez. In place of Fernandez’s photo, the Mejia administration officers placed a photograph of former Santo Domingo Mayor Jose Francisco Peña Gomez. |
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Chinese sent back to China The Department of Migration confirmed that 52 Chinese citizens were deported yesterday, several of whom had entered the country via irregular border crossings from Haiti or had been arrested attempting to board boats making illegal trips to Puerto Rico. They had been kept at the governmental Centro Vacacional de Haina for several weeks and were deported on European airlines. The US government picked up the tab for the airfare. |
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Too many lawyers The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Jorge Subero Isa said that in recent years 7,884 new lawyers have been sworn in. He spoke at the swearing in of 608 lawyers at the Supreme Court yesterday. Subero estimates that an average of 133 lawyers per month are authorized to practice and estimates that there already should be more than 35,000 lawyers authorized to practice in the Dominican Republic. Subero said that Dominican students should consider other careers that contribute more to the development of the country. He theorized that the population likely or able to use the service of a lawyer numbers 4.6 million, providing therefore one lawyer per 133 inhabitants, which he called far too many. “It could be said that the Dominican Republic is perhaps the country with the most lawyers per number of inhabitants or square kilometer,” he said. He said the excess of lawyers is contributing to the hypertrophy of the public administration payroll. |
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October power bills to show big increase El Caribe newspaper reports that Minister of Finance Jose Lois Malkum says that consumers will receive the increases for hikes in fuel costs, exchange rate costs and inflation in October. The government has authorized the power distributors to raise the bills for power served in September. President Mejia had said in his 17 September speech that the government would no long absorb the increases of costs as of 1 October, giving the notion that the November bills would show the increase, not the October bills. Hoy newspaper says that the application of the power rate increases as of September violates Electricity Law 125-01. According to Art. 114 of the law, the application of rate adjustments may only go into effect 30 days after the new rates are published in a local newspaper. As the Superintendence of Power Resolution 31 was published on 20 September, the companies should apply the new rates as of no earlier than 20 October. Engineer Jose Luis Moreno, of the Institute of Power of the state university, says that the companies could be open to legal action taken against them given the illegality of the early raises in tariffs. |
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Non traditional exports up 11% this year Danilo del Rosario, director of the Dominican Center for the Promotion of Exports (Cedopex), said that non-traditional exports were up 11% during the first nine months of the year. He said that likewise, free zone exports are up as US companies are sourcing goods in time for Christmas shopping. Del Rosario announced that President Hipolito Mejia would outline the country’s new strategy to promote exports at the upcoming Exporters’ Gala Dinner set for 16 October. |
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Promoting trade with Cuba Danilo del Rosario, director of the Dominican Center for the Promotion of Exports (Cedopex), announced the participation of a significant Dominican delegation at the 3-10 November International Trade Fair in La Havana, Cuba. He said that trade between both countries has stagnated at around US$50 million per year for the past two years, but he expects the Dominican mission to Cuba will bring back leads for increased trade. Del Rosario said that Cuba is an 11-million person and that about 60 Dominican companies will be traveling to Cuba for the event. |
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Work advances at Haina Port Diario Libre reports that investments are advancing on the RD$400 million modernization and upgrade of the Port of Haina that would triple its present cargo handling capacity. Salvador Abate, general manager of Haina International Terminal, the organization in charge of the remodeling and reorganizing of the port, said they expect two yard cranes to enter into operation next week. The cranes were purchased from Pacific Handling System of Portland, Oregon at a cost of RD$50 million. The cranes will significantly expedite the loading and unloading of merchandise from the ships and reduce the costly delays caused by the lack of availability of equipment. |
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Silva-Herzog counsels on FTA talks Former Minister of Finance and US Ambassador of Mexico to the United States Jesus Silva-Herzog urged that the Dominican government and business sectors have a clear idea of what the DR wants before opening trade talks with the United States for a free trade agreement. Silva-Herzog was one of the leading players in Mexico’s signing of the NAFTA agreement in 1994. “What does the Dominican Republic want from a free trade agreement with the United States and what are the objectives?” he said during a conference on free trade sponsored by El Caribe newspaper. He said the DR should also ask itself what are the interests of the United States in signing a free trade agreement with the Dominican Republic. He said if the DR wants to sell more sugar, tobacco or farm products, the export of these products would not increase with a free trade agreement. During his talk, Silva-Herzog focused on the winners and losers in Mexico with the signing of NAFTA and how the experiences gained could apply to the Dominican case. He said that in a free trade agreement not everything is gain and that while exports can increase, there is also an increase in imports that affects traditional local producers. During his talk, he said that the negotiation process is difficult and very costly. He estimated the treaty cost Mexico about US$40 to 50 million in lobbying costs, or to bribe several congressmen. “That is the word, I could have said convince, but the word is to bribe the US congressmen to accept the free trade agreement,” said. He mentioned that if he were to do it again, he would have integrated the gradual reducing of tariffs over a longer period and would have been more selective choosing sectors that would be affected. He said that NAFTA has made Mexico dependent on US imports. “Our treaty provided an economic boost on one hand, but created a shadow on the other; and we lost a lot of our own products in the deal,” he explained. But he agreed that the Dominican Republic cannot let itself be left out of the regional integration. “There is a fundamental thing for the DR, that is not to be left out of the integration of Central America and the Caribbean with the United States,” he said. He commented that the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Panama are the only countries not part of a regional block. But he again insisted that before integrating into the Dominican Republic needs to carefully assess if the integration with Central American free trade negotiations is in the best interest of the country. |
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Head north for jazz All is ready for the opening of the IV Dominican Jazz Festival on the North Coast. The event brings some of the best contemporary jazz to Sosua, Puerto Plata and Cabarete stages. The event has the support of the Association of Hotels & Restaurants of Sosua and Cabarete, the Playa Dorada Condominiums and Owners Association and the Ministry of Tourism. Chuck Mangione leads a select group of jazz performers, that also includes Bobby Sanabria, Poncho Sanchez, Mitch Rutman Group, Kingsley Etienne, Modern Tong Orchestra, Warren Oree & The Argpeggio Jazz Ensemble, and Natti Love Joys, among others who will be playing under the balmy skies of the north coast travel destinations. Three US radio stations from Atlanta, New York and Miami this year will be streaming the festival live. http://www.dr1.com/jazz/ |
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