President Leonel Fernandez said yesterday that he was looking for an inflation rate of just a single digit for 2005, and called this "the best news I can give the Dominican people." He said this means that prices have to come down. At the same time he pointed out that during the first months of his administration, the Dominican currency has recovered much of its value, a fact that should be recognized as a positive step. Fernandez argued that a lower exchange rate, together with the wage increases, means more buying power for Dominicans, as reported in El Caribe.
President Fernandez warned that doctors would not get a salary increase all by themselves. The President emphasized: "I believe that the doctors do not represent a privileged class; they are in the same condition as the rest of the country." He asked that the physicians remain patient and guaranteed that there would be a general increase in salaries.
At the same time, the Diario Libre and other papers are reporting on the full-scale strike that has left the public hospitals without much beyond the most urgent emergency assistance. Carrying signs that cried for "Dialogue or Strike!" the doctors walked out of the hospitals. Now, the 173 facilities that belong to the Ministry of Public Health and the Dominican Social Security Institute are being targeted by the members of the CMD. This week a 48-hour strike is being planned, following which, if there is no solution or dialogue, the Medical College has announced a 72-hour strike for the week that follows. Public Health Minister Sabino Baez told reporters that he would not ask President Fernandez to meet with the representatives of the CMD, while recognizing that RD$11,000 a month was "a small salary" for a doctor. But, he pointed out that we are in the Dominican Republic, not the United States.
While the hospitals' staffs are striking, they will attend emergencies and critical ailments only; there will be no consults or elective surgeries.
The 30% increase in wages that is currently seeking approval in Congress will consume approximately RD$8 billion of the 2005 budget. According to the report in Diario Libre, the pay hike will be effected in two phases, the first with a 20% increase and a subsequent 10% increase. During the first nine months of 2004 the government spent an average of RD$2.265 billion per month on personal services, according to the Budget Office. A 20% wage increase in January will augment this figure to RD$2.718 billion per month, representing an overall increase of RD$5.89 billion per year. To this amount, another 10% must be factored, to give a total RD$2.99 billion. The legislation approved by the Chamber of Deputies would distribute a 20% wage increase in January and another 10% by mid-year.
The IMF representative in the Dominican Republic, Ousmane J. Mandeng, visited the Congress halls yesterday to talk about his organization's interest in the 2005 budget. The approval of an IMF-approved budget is one of the first steps to obtaining a renewal of the Stand By Agreement with the international financial institution. Senate president Andres Bautista told reporters from the Listin Diario that the two met for more than three hours to discuss the DR financial situation, monetary issues and the banking climate. Bautista said that they "talked about the fundamental problems of the country."
Dominican ambassador to the United States Hugo Guiliani Cury favors establishing diplomatic relations with all of the Asiatic nations, including China. He said that the DR "must diversify because we have been too close to the United States."
Nonetheless, Guiliani, who has finished his mission in the United States, said that it will be difficult for the nation to establish relations with China because it will require a political decision. Guiliani pointed out that countries such as Argentina, Mexico and Brazil have already initiated diplomatic relations with China, which country, according to Guiliani, wants to increase its presence in Latin America. The Dominican Republic is one of the 26 nations that maintains its diplomatic ties to Taiwan. According to a report in the Washington Post, Guiliani was recently in China as the guest of a group of Chinese-American business advocates. The Baltimore group known as the Mid-Atlantic Asian Products Outlet Center is reportedly interested in increasing commercial relations between the US and China, but also believes that a triangular trade that includes Latin America would be just as viable.
The government will pay the electric generators another US$17 million this week, bringing the total to US$107 million over the past few months. The Listin Diario reports that Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa announced the new payment yesterday before leaving on an official trip to Costa Rica along with Central Bank Governor Hector Valdez Albizu. In December the government is scheduled to pay the generators US$25 million to keep the lights on. In the first four months of the Fernandez administration's term, the government will have doled out more than US$130 million to the electric generators. Nevertheless, El Caribe says that even with the new disbursement, there is less electricity for the consumers. The newspaper points out that in spite of the payment the long blackouts continue and the government is merely acquiring more and more debt, since the money is to go towards fuel purchases for the generators.
While Bengoa talked about the "enormous sacrifices" the government was making in order to fulfill these payments, the deal does not end there. Bengoa said that the dollar payment is in addition to the RD$4.53 billion that the state is paying for the subsidy to the poorest consumers and those public institutions that cannot have their electricity cut off. The disadvantaged barrios are still experiencing power outages 12 hours or more every day. Superintendent of Electricity Francisco Mendez told reporters that Itabo I and II were offline due to mechanical problems, but returned online with 225 MW. According to the Consumer Protection Department of the Superintendent's office, the various distributors (EDEs) owe 454 consumers a collective RD$6 million for cuts to their service.
Once again, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado has been called on to mediate a crisis, this time between the local municipalities and the Ministry of the Interior and Police. In answer to a request from the Dominican Federation of Municipalities, Monsignor Nunez will try and sort out the issues surrounding the heavy equipment issue and the municipal police forces that were permitted during the Mejia Administration but which have since been disbanded. The municipalities are looking for help because they need the equipment to conclude local construction projects and repairs and the local police to control local parking, traffic and offer security for public buildings. The educator and mediator had told reporters, before answering this request, that the country needed peace and understanding.
The Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic has declared Decree 798-02, as issued by the Mejia Administration, to be unconstitutional. As a result, the AMET traffic police can no longer determine the amount of a fine for violations of Law 241 that governs vehicle and traffic infractions. The Supreme Court decreed that only penal courts have the authority to impose fines, after deciding that Decree 798-02's Article 8, Paragraph J and Article 37 contradicted the nation's Constitution. According to Diario Libre, fines may only be levied if the case is submitted to a competent jurisdiction where the accused would be guaranteed the right to a defense. Article 37 of the Dominican Constitution says that only Congress can create or replace ordinary tribunals. In effect, Law 585 created the special traffic courts for infractions of Law 241, and it also created the Justices of the Peace. Officers that make an arrest for a traffic offense are obliged to submit the person immediately to a court.
Between May and October, the poultry sector took in gross earnings of RD$619 million, while they complained of the crisis that resulted from the exchange rate that weakened the peso. A report by the National Council of Livestock Production (CONAPROPE) says that poultry suppliers made their highest profits during the months when the exchange crisis was at its peak. Their argument is based on the cost-price relation for poultry at the farm level and the document shows that the difference between the cost of production and the sale price was widest when the crisis was at its worst. The poultry farmers who saw their production fall to 37 million pounds in June still earned a gross profit of RD$64 million. The following month, however, they grossed profits of RD$158 million.
A consultant from Nathan & Associates, Peter Minor, said that exports of cotton pants from the industrial free zones will fall by US$300 million due to the elimination of the textile quotas of the Agreement on Textiles and Dresses of the World Trade Organization. Minor said that he felt that this could cause as many as 36,000 people to lose their jobs as a direct result and another 12,000 indirectly. He talked about a global loss of US$662 million in textile manufacturers producing items such as underwear, pants and shirts. The expert gave his talk on "Competitiveness of Dominican Textile Sector" and suggested that the nation's manufacturers source their cloth in Canada or Mexico to reduce costs. He urged that the DR-CAFTA agreement be put into effect, since without the agreement competition with Asia will be difficult achieve.
The diocese of La Altagracia, in the province of Higuey, issued a communique that expresses the Catholic Church's willingness to uncover the details surrounding the accusations of rape and sexual misconduct at a local orphanage. According to El Caribe, La Altagracia's Bishop Gregorio Nicanor Pena Rodriguez, Santiago's Archbishop Ramon Benito de la Rosa y Carpio (a former bishop of La Altagracia) and Father Jorge Reyes Dirocie (a former diocesan administrator) professed their hope that the truth would prevail and that "responsibility would be established regardless of who may be involved." They furthermore said that there should be no impunity in the matter.
The prelates also referred to the proper procedures that have been followed in the case so far, mentioning how the situation was, upon discovery, immediately turned over to the hands of the justice system.
The document also laments the fact that the home in San Rafael de Yuma was used for such devious purposes. The institution was designed to help orphaned and abandoned children by preparing them to fit into society. "So many times, good works are initiated only to be imbued by evil in the most unexpected fashion – at the very hands of those in whom we have put our trust."
In spite of this recent scandal, the communique says that similar Church-run institutions will take a lesson from the Ciudad de los Ninos experience to prevent similar occurrences, a lesson that perhaps should have been learned earlier in San Rafael. The Ciudad de los Ninos San Francisco de Javier orphanage first came under scrutiny in 2002, when nine children declared that they had been raped. The bishops said yesterday, however, that in that instance the Church did not feel it was necessary to close the home.
The second claims of abuse were made in March of this year, when 13 minors indicated that they had been sexually accosted. The Ciudad de los Ninos institution was shut by the diocese in September.
Meanwhile, the trial of Dolores Mejia, the woman sentenced to 15 years in prison in connection with the first spate of accusations in San Rafael de Yuma, has been set back until 10 December due to absent witnesses. Apart from Mejia, the only witnesses present were three others being detained in connection with the charges of impropriety at the Ciudad de los Ninos.
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