| Daily News - Monday, 18 October 2004 |
President Leonel Fernandez and First Lady Margarita Cedeno were present yesterday at the Presidential Palace ceremony to mark the implementation of Law 136-03, which establishes the Code for the Protection of the Fundamental Rights of Boys, Girls and Adolescents and supplants Law 14-94. Diario Libre reports that as of today, the regular courts will no longer hear cases involving minors. Similarly, child financial upkeep cases will no longer be heard by justices of the peace, but by one of the 17 specially-appointed courts to handle youth issues. The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, however, has urged that the number of these courts be increased.
In other changes to the law, children now have the right to accuse their parents of mistreatment.
Speaking during the event, First Lady Margarita Cedeno emphasized that the new legislation does away with the previous notion that viewed children and adolescents as the property of their parents, the state, the judges and the non-governmental agencies, whereas the new system regards them as persons under development, subject to the basic rights that protect their dignity.
By the same token, the law establishes that minors can now be sued for damages. Jail sentences will be given to youths only in those cases where no other penalty is possible. Nevertheless, the new code establishes that minors between the ages of 13 and 15 who cause physical injury or are the perpetrators of sexual assaults, violent thefts, kidnappings, drug trafficking and other penal law violations will be sentenced to three years in jail, and those between the ages of 16 and 18 sentenced to five years. The law says these sentences can be carried out in a specialized detention center.
Also participating in yesterday's event were the president of the Supreme Court of Justice Jorge Subero Isa, Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque, Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito, Conani president Kirsys Fernandez and the president of the National Council of Business, Elena Viyella de Paliza.
The director of the National Budget Office, Ruben Pena Pichardo, said that the government expects to submit a RD$150-billion budget to Congress for 2005. As reported in the Listin Diario on Saturday, Pena said that the budget includes a 20-30% wage increase for public employees. By year's end, he said, the 2004 budget, which was originally estimated at RD$122 billion, will most likely end up representing expenditures of RD$128-RD$129 billion.
The Customs Department has given the Plaza Lama department store until Monday, 18 October to pay RD$252 million in import taxes that the government department says were evaded by smuggling merchandise into the country. Miguel Cocco, who oversaw Customs operations from 1996-2000 and is now back at the helm of the department, ordered the intervention measure, as well as an audit of the goods sold in the stores.
Meanwhile, District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez instructed the auditors to desist from these actions on the grounds that their intervention was in violation of the new Penal Procedures Code. The Customs Department has responded to the DA to say that they could be accused of acting in complicity with Plaza Lama. The matter was resolved through the intervention of Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito, and the DA consented to the intervention once Customs requested an authorization to intervene in the store from a corresponding judge.
Hernandez Peguero maintained that Customs officials could not order the closure of a company without the order of a judge. The Customs department, however, said that it has irrefutable proof that Plaza Lama perpetrated a massive fraud in the way it brought hundreds of appliances into the country without paying taxes. While Cocco says he is acting on the authority granted to the Department of Customs by Law 3489, the district attorney says that the aspects of this law are now subject to the rulings of the Penal Procedures Code.
The Central Bank Governor met with several of the top Spanish investors in local tourism, where he promoted the new investment certificates being offered by the bank. Hector Valdez Albizu spoke of restored confidence, the reduction of the exchange rate's volatility, lower interest rates, and the check on inflation. He also referred to an imminent resumption of the standby arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, "which means the country is on the road to macroeconomic stability," as reported in Hoy newspaper.
The hoteliers who met with Valdez were: Abel Matutes, the former Spanish foreign relations minister; his cousin Abel Matutes of Sirenis; Miguel Fluxa of Iberostar; Carmen Riu of Riu; Ramon Rosello of Bancaja; Simon Barcelo of Barcelo; Pablo Pineyro of Princess Hoteles; Adolfo Fabiero of Occidental Hotels and Dominicans Frank Rainieri of Grupo Punta Cana, Rafael Blanco Canto of Viva Wyndham hotels, and Julio Llibre of Coral by Hilton hotels. The group was accompanied by Enrique Eduardo de Marchena, the president of the National Association of Hotels & Restaurants, and Arturo Villanueva, the executive vice-president of the same organization.
It didn't happen quickly, but on Saturday, 16 October, a causeway was restored over the Chavon River, thereby easing the traffic problems in the eastern area of the DR. The bridge over the Chavon collapsed one month ago under the force of the excess waters delivered by Hurricane Jeanne. The restoration of the bridge enables those arriving by way of the La Romana International Airport to travel easily to the Bayahibe or Punta Cana areas. Previously, a detour road had to be used or a ferry taken to cross.
The ministries of tourism and environment appear to be divided on how to proceed with the development of the southwestern beach area of Bahia de las Aguilas, as reported in El Caribe newspaper
Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez is backing the development of hotels in Bahia de las Aguilas, a formerly protected natural reserve area until the Mejia administration altered the status of 53.5 square kilometers of beach in the National Jaragua Park, designating it a "recreational area" despite widespread opposition from environmental sectors from within the Dominican Republic and from abroad. Jimenez says that seven international hotel chains are interested in the area and that the development will put an end to poverty in the region completely. The minister said the government plans to authorize the development of the projects, which also include the development of the impoverished Haitian town of Anse-a-Pitre, by mid-2005. Jimenez said the World Tourism Organization will participate in the undertaking and that financing would come from the InterAmerican Development Bank and the Bank of European Investments.
At the other end of the spectrum, however, environmentalists are challenging the law that removed the protected status of several areas across the country and the involvement of the Environment Ministry. Environment Minister Max Puig, along with other environmentalists, is awaiting an opinion from the Supreme Court of Justice on the issue. Hotel development at the Bahia de las Aguilas would violate the UNESCO biosphere reserve category granted to the Pedernales beach site.
As reported in El Caribe, during his first term as tourism minister from 1996-2000, Jimenez, who is a real estate developer by profession, promoted the development of a tourism project for Bahia de las Aguilas in France that included the construction of infrastructure in nearby Cabo Rojo, as well as a cruise ship port.
Another proposals backed by environmentalists supports developing the hotels in Cabo Rojo and leaving the fragile Bahia de las Aguilas beach intact.
An electrical short circuit caused a major fire early Sunday morning, destroying one of the large barns located in the Ciudad Ganadera that is used on the Malecon. The short circuit occurred after power service resumed following a blackout. The barn was being used as a produce market for the location of food and produce-vending stalls.
On his TV program La Respuesta yesterday, lawyer Marino Vinicio (Vincho) Castillo revealed that the Mejia government paid RD$11,750,000 to the Fundacion Economia y Desarrollo (FED) and its representative, former presidential economic advisor Andy Dauhajre, for a US$120,000 two-month contract for professional services just four days after then-President Hipolito Mejia lost his bid for re-election, as reported in the Listin Diario. Castillo said the payment was made as per a contract with the CDEEE, the governmental electricity company, and was disbursed by Edenorte, one of the two bankrupt power distribution companies the Mejia administration bought back from Union Fenosa.
The terms established that the FED was responsible for preparing financial models to incorporate the hidden costs of the contracts for the purchase of energy from the private power generators that had not been renegotiated. The FED was similarly responsible for providing recommendations on the power rates and, in the event of any decision to subsidize these rates, design mechanisms to ensure the necessary fiscal contributions so that the power distribution agents would receive the resources. Dauhajre was also responsible for assessing the feasibility of the electricity sector in different macroeconomic scenarios.
Castillo debated the need for the CDEEE to contract Dauhajre's assistance and observed that Dauhajre actually shared the responsibility of negotiating the buyback of the distributors with Cesar Sanchez, the executive vice-president of the CDEEE, and Hernani Salazar Simo, the executive director of the Public Works Supervisory Office of the Executive Branch. As reported in the Listin Diario, Castillo described that the buyback contract as one of the most "ignominious acts that have been committed against the country in all of its history."
By the terms of the buyback contracts, the country committed to pay US$12 million plus interest, thereby designating the income from the distributors' better clients to guarantee the payments.
The Listin Diario today publishes the contract with the CDEEE.
The DR's Pedro Martinez will be pitching tonight for the Boston Red Sox, marking his second appearance in the American League playoffs against the New York Yankees. The Red Sox are still alive thanks to a two-run slam at 1:22am by David Ortiz in the 12th inning of the third game last night at Fenway Park. Boston has lost its first three games.
See http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/18/...
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