| Daily News - 26 September 2003 |
A national survey conducted by the US polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed that 18% of potential voters favor the re-election of President Mejia, with a margin of error of +/- 3%. 79% of the likely voters polled were against his re-election. The survey was commissioned by the seven PRD pre-candidates who oppose Mejia’s bid for a second consecutive term of office. The poll sought out the opinions of 1,300 likely voters and took place on 11-17 September. The questions posed were: “Are you in favor or against the re-election of Hipolito Mejia in 2004?” and “Are you in favor or against the re-election of a President?” PRD party leader Hugo Tolentino Dipp, who was Minister of Foreign Relations in the Mejia administration until he resigned over differences regarding the country’s support of the war in Iraq, doubts that President Mejia has sufficient real support. “Being in power provides the resources for re-election. I do not know how far they will go, whether [Mejia] will re-elect himself the way Doctor Balaguer used to, because it is hard for me to think he could be re-elected if not by fraud, or through violence or methods lacking logic.” Mark Feierstein, associate vice-president of the US polling firm, says that the survey showed that approximately 55% of the Dominican population is against the notion of re-election – for any President. In a press conference, Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero, speaking for the seven who oppose Mejia’s selection as the party’s presidential candidate, confirmed that they would go ahead and hold a plebiscite on 12 October among party members to determine a consensus on the issue of re-election. The PPH faction that supports President Hipolito Mejia’s bid for re-election opposes the plebiscite on grounds that none of the leaders of the party were queried as to whether they were in agreement.
The Chamber of Deputies approved the Executive Branch's request for congressional authorization of a RD$1.79-billion transfer of National Budget funds. The bill had already been approved by the PRD-majority Senate and mandates the allocations shuffle that will see RD$950 million redirected to the President's Office. The bill received the favorable vote of 79 deputies of a total 150. While the PLD deputies abstained, only the 14 deputies of the PRSC group under Licelot Marte de Barrios and Victor (Ito) Bisono voted in favor. If the PRSC had not lent its support, the bill would not have been passed. The "Reformista" deputies have been a cohesive force so far, voting for most requests sent down from Mejia's government. Political analyst Orlando Gil, in his column in the Listin Diario, comments on the sympathetic PRSC vote despite their presidential candidate, Eduardo Estrella, having urged deputies to oppose the request. Gil speculates that there may have been a covert agreement among the deputies and mentions that the magic of Alfredo Pacheco, PRD president of the Chamber of Deputies, is taking effect. He comments that Pacheco met recently with Jacinto Peynado of the PRSC in the US. In his analysis today, he points out that while the PRSC cannot unify to successfully advance a candidacy or direct their party, they have voted regularly to support the Mejia government. "The approval makes it clear that the legislative subordination to the Executive Branch is still in effect," he writes. President Mejia had originally requested that Congress authorize the RD$1.79-billion allocation structure of the National Budget on 2 September. The transfer will affect the budgets of the ministries of Education, Environment, and Industry & Commerce, as well as the allotments to pay the public debt. A sum of RD$950 million would be diverted to the Office of the President of the Republic, the Ministry of the Interior and Police, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Foreign Relations Ministry. The precise breakdown of the transfers, as reported in Diario Libre, is as follows: The Education Ministry is to see a withdrawal of RD$109 million that had been previously assigned to student welfare services (RD$90 million) and pedagogical technical services (RD$19 million), to now pay for teacher pensions and retirement plans (RD$35.1 million), donations and personal aid programs (RD$54.8 million) and RD$19 million for decentralized institutions. The Industry & Commerce Ministry would see reductions of RD$5 million in its budget for the coordination of councils and commissions, while RD$5.6 million would be allotted to unnamed programs for the regulation of prices, norms and quality control systems. The Environment Ministry will lose RD$7 million from its regular budget, but in exchange should receive RD$34.8 million for the preservation of protected areas, RD$1.3 million for environmental quality programs, RD$11.1 million for activities and RD$1.5 million for unallocated sectors. Payment of the public debt is reduced by RD$1.67 billion Of the funds to be transferred to the Presidency of the Republic, RD$950.5 million would be designated for use in construction and improvements (RD$408.4 million), public transport (RD$34 million), drug control (RD$36 million), advertising (RD$40 million), coordination of social programs (RD$267 million), and a division described as "current capital transfers from the private and public sectors" (RD$94.8 million). The Ministry of Interior & Police would receive RD$154.7 million for the police force (RD$132 million) and firefighting brigades (RD$11.7 million). The Armed Forces would see an additional RD$139.75 million allocated to their budget. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would receive RD$297 million for dispersal to the foreign diplomatic corps. The additional funding is attributed to the devaluation of the peso. Other government departments to receive allotments from the shuffled budget are Finances (RD$24.5 million), Agriculture (RD$32.4 million), Tourism (RD$14 million), Attorney General's Office (RD$20 million) and Superior Education (RD$11 million).
The Chamber of Deputies has authorized the government to develop its request for a third placement of sovereign bonds, in the amount of US$255 million, to be placed on international capital markets. This round of bonds is being called for to raise funds for the construction of the Coral Highway, which would link the tourist areas in San Pedro de Macoris (Juan Dolio and Guayacanes) and La Romana (La Romana, Bayahibe and Dominicus) to the cities of Higuey and Veron (cross point for Punta Cana, Macao, Uvero Alto, and Bavaro) in the province of La Altagracia. An editorial in El Caribe newspaper criticizes the fact that the government did not opt to seek assistance from multilateral lending organizations, but instead chose the more expedite but also much more expensive method of sovereign-bond financing.
Fundacion Siglo 21, an economic think-tank, asks today in its commentary in the Listin Diario if anyone is doing the math or requesting calculations from others before making decisions in government. Economist Isidoro Santana writes that the lack of governmental calculations is evident once again regarding the renationalization of Edenorte and Edesur, but explains that these oversights are hardly new and attributes the current macroeconomic imbalance to this tendency as well. Santana said the government did not do its math when it chose to finance an ambitious public works program by taking on foreign debt, saying the repayment was instead left up to the Virgen de la Altagracia. The present administration, he says, went to the extreme when it presented the low levels of indebtedness to the country upon entering into office in 2000 as a negative factor. He writes that the new levels of debt incurred by the Mejia government, however, have only served to spur an impressive capital flight and further corruption. He asks where were the numbers people when the government first came to Baninter's assistance, to discover shortly thereafter that this was not a matter of the bank's momentary lack of liquidity, but a major fraud, and regardless they opened the vaults of the Central Bank to issue pesos wholesale, without hard currency support. When the monetary authorities finally understood what they had gotten into, their first reaction was that it didn't matter because by law the Central Bank cannot lose money, and the government is obliged to finance any commitments it takes on. But the million-dollar question was - Where would the money come from? Santana comments further on how, as a result, the DR went from being the model example of a healthy Latin American economy to a country where people have had to withdraw their funds and a country with rampant inflation and a spiraling devaluation of the peso that the government has tried to control by artificial measures. Once again, Santana says, the calculations failed. And then the government chose to subsidize the cost of power, but no one assessed where the money would come from for the government to pick up the bill. At that point in any case the IMF had been called in, an organization that is expert at performing calculations. Nonetheless, the authorities continue to make decisions as if nothing has happened, such as the buyback of Edenorte and Edesur. In conclusion, Santana leaves us with two unanswered questions. Where will the money come from for this deal? And is there anyone in the government doing its numbers?
The Listin Diario reports that an analysis from the north branch of the Colegio de Ingenieros, Arquitectos y Agrimensores (Codia), the top engineering society in the Dominican Republic, stipulates that 24 buildings in the city of Santiago must be torn down. The buildings suffered major structural damages that make the demolitions necessary. Ervin Vargas says that the technical evaluation showed that 24 buildings of the total 121 structures affected were rendered unsafe by the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit the region on Monday, 22 September.
The local press has been following the case of murdered youth Jose Francisco Nolasco, who was killed by the police in an apparent case of mistaken identity. The police were in pursuit of a known delinquent in Sabana Perdida when Lieutenant Cristino Alvarez Ventura fired at Nolasco. When the lieutenant realized he had killed the wrong person, he tried to conceal the error by placing an illegal revolver in the hand of the youth, so as to imply that he had killed him in self-defense. An investigation took place after the young man's family of stirred the public's indignation and a police commission determined that the lieutenant was indeed responsible. Police spokesman Ramon Francisco Rodriguez said that Alvarez Ventura's case would be handled by the regular judicial system and he would be charged with murder. When questioned by the press, however, he could not say whether he would also be accused of possession of an unauthorized weapon. If this were included in the murder case against him, the agent could not be freed on bail. Columnist Jose Monegro, writing in El Dia newspaper, says that while the police have singled out Alvarez, the patrol that gave the order has not been penalized as an accomplice to the crime. Monegro points out that the patrol chief on the scene, Major Letta Castro, forbid the neighbors to assist the mortally wounded Nolasco. Monegro laments the major's good fortune and the fact that he will not be made to explain his actions. The police commission determined that Alvarez Ventura was the sole person responsible for the killing.
Diario Libre reports today that 700 of the estimated 18,000 prisoners held in the nation's jails are between 60 and 84 years of age. The Penal Code contains clauses that provide for their release, however, and a movement has begun to seek the liberation of these senior citizens. The law establishes that upon reaching the age of 60, the convicts should be remanded to correction houses. Unfortunately, however, correction houses do not exist in the Dominican penitentiary system.
Feriarte 2003, the Dominican arts & crafts expo, is now open at the Hotel Melia's Gran Salon on Santo Domingo's Malecon. It will run until Sunday 28 September from 10am to 10pm and admission is free. The exhibition is sponsored by the Santo Domingo Chamber of Commerce and is a great place to purchase Dominican-made arts and crafts and get an idea of local artisanal items.
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