The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has modified the decree that limited sales of gasoline. The new regulation will permit gasoline sales on Sundays and holidays until 2:00 p.m. However, the same regulation now includes the sale of LPG (Liquid Propane Gas), which now must abide by the same restrictions as the gas stations. From Monday until Friday, sales are allowed from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m., and on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays sales are restricted to 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Shell Company has set conditions for paying profits generated by petroleum sales for the years 2003 and 2004 to the government paying its debt for subsidies on propane gas, according to a letter to the press written by Rafael Mandariaga, general manager.
The Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa), a joint venture between the state and Shell company. As reported in Clave Digital, decisions made within the company has taken "in consensus" with the representatives of the Dominican government. The report mentioned that pending are RD$1.29 billion, to be distributed among Shell's private investors and the Dominican Republic.
Last Tuesday, the president of Refidomsa, and representative of the Dominican government in the joint venture, Aristides Fernandez Zucco accused Shell of retaining RD$227 million in dividens from 1990, that were not paid until just three months ago. He said that the interest accrued by those dividends were not paid and will not be able to be recovered as the period for this has expired. He said that this had cost the state RD$312 million.
Business leaders from the Dominican Republic are traveling to Guatemala to discuss the ways and means of getting the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) underway. The object of the meetings is to define just how things will be done to launch the FTA in January of 2006. In effect, the Central American countries that have approved the FTA with the United States are free to begin operations under its aegis in January, but the Dominican Republic is being held up because of the 13% exchange commission tax on dollars used to purchase goods and services abroad. This tax is considered to be contrary to the DR-CAFTA guidelines. This week's series of meetings in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are designed to set a date for the start up of DR-CAFTA. In today's meeting in Guatemala, the attendees will hear a talk, "A common destiny", designed to show how small, well designed steps can lead to an increase in confidence in the ability of the DR-CAFTA nations to compete within the agreement.
Amidst the public airing of major irregularities in civil registration offices under the Central Electoral Board (JCE) jurisdiction, the JCE announces it will be using RD$29 million to house the offices of the Segunda Circunscripcion del Estado Civil del Distrito Nacional, as published in Hoy newpaper. The new civil registry office is intended to be a model office. Judge Roberto Rosario Marquez announced that tenders would be held for all contracting involved in the construction. Furthermore, he announced that as of January, the JCE would set fixed salaries for civil registry officers and other key officers in its departments.
Hoy newspaper editorial today comments on the estimated two million persons living in the DR who do not have legal identity. This is despite millions in government funding for the JCE for this purpose over the years.
The newspaper highlights that the situation is more serious because those who are in this condition, perpetuate the condition when they have children. "A state that prides itself on being organized cannot explain or justify such high numbers of undocumented persons. Neither can it explain why nothing is being done to reverse this situation," writes the editorialist.
The newspaper highlights that the lack of government support to resolve this situation has resulted in several cases to solutions outside the law, or forgery and other methods. The newspaper says there is no easy solution, but the government needs to shuffle ways to make the process of legalizing a person less tedious and costly, so that it is always possible to confirm a person's origin.
The president of the Central Electoral Board, Luis Arias, has said that late birth declarations are a "national calamity", and promised that the creation of a new unit at the JCE would deal exclusively with the problem. Arias has denied that there were as many as two million people in the country who are not in possession of legal documents due to the lack of a birth certificate. Arias said, "If in the latest census there were eight million or so people, and at the JCE we have voter registration records for 5.3 million people, it is not logical that there can be two million people without documents." Magistrate Roberto Rosario told reporters that the World Bank would be providing US$20 million in order for the JCE to create a specialized department that will deal exclusively with the problem of late birth records.
Meanwhile, Luis Felipe Rodriguez, the civil registry officer who was dismissed for using his office's collections to help people regularize their status, said that he would be taking his case to court and "to the last of consequences." Rodriguez made headlines for his successful program that legalized 4,000 Dominicans in record time and his proposal to legalize another 25,000 with the money generated by his former office. The program brought out into the open the fact that other officers were pocketing revenues collected at their civil registry offices. Rodriguez had demanded that the service of providing birth certificates should be free of charge, and that civil registry offices should be assigned wages from the funds they generate, not from the increase the JCE will be requesting in the 2006 budget.
The director of the department for immigrants at the Attorney General's office, Frank Soto, has asked that a judge declare the passport case to be "complex" and so order an ever wider investigation. This will permit the Attorney General to investigate the ins and outs of the case for up to a year. The widely publicized case involves an alleged "mafia" that obtained diplomatic passports for people that had no right to use them. So far, over 50 people have been investigated, one sub-minister has been jailed, several mayors and councilmen are also in jail and dozens more are out on bail. Soto said that the case was so complicated that there are still many more people who need to be investigated. As reported in Listin Diario, the whole case is putting the Ministry of Justice to the test, because of the international implications of the case, as well as the fact that the case is crossing party lines and implicating people both high and low. Just one immediate result of the case is the prohibition from Italy that voids any council member or his family from traveling to Italy on a diplomatic passport.
Aure Ricardo Florentino Garcia has told reporters that even though he is being investigated along with the group of false councilmen who obtained diplomatic passports, his case is clear on the one hand, but a bit confusing on the other. It seems that Florentino Garcia handed in his birth certificate and some photos to the president of the municipal council of the town of Fantino, Uladislao Abreu Duran (a.k.a. "Israel") . Abreu Duran is currently being held in La Victoria prison by decree of magistrate Jose Reynaldo Ferreira. According to Florentino Garcia, the official handed him a diplomatic passport containing a Spanish visa. Florentino promised to send RD$160,000 to Abreu Duran. The bogus council member said that Abreu Duran had asked him for a copy of his "cedula" (the personal ID and voter registration card in the DR) but never gave the documents back nor informed how things were going, allegedly because things were "getting hot." Nonetheless, when Florentino Garcia was arrested by agents from the Attorney General's office, the investigations at the Ministry of Foreign Relations turned up a passport issued in Florintino's name, with his date of birth and "cedula" but with someone else's photograph. Not only that, but someone had married Florentino to a woman he had never seen nor heard of. Furthermore, someone using his name has been sending money from Spain to the Dominican Republic. Sources told El Caribe that the second passport was sold for RD$200,000.
One union, MOCHOTRAN, has requested the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (AMET) to permit all its members to work during peak traffic hours, from 6 until 9 in the morning, no matter what color the car's roof is painted. The two other major union leaders, Juan Hubieres and Ramon Perez Figuero have opposed the suggestion. Mochotran president Alfredo Linares said that such a move would alleviate the scarcity of vehicles during the morning rush hour. According to information from AMET, there are 14,300 vehicles officially registered under the new rules. Supposedly, there are more than 20,000 little cars that transport people over established routes. AMET spokesman Colonel Damian Arias said that he was sure that not all the cars would be painted by 17 October when the system is supposed to begin.
Clave Digital reports that there are 786 routes under the control of 312 syndicates, 226 associations, 14 cooperatives, 53 unions, 33 companies, 22 federations, three confederations and five transport centrals. The online news service says that during the 2000-2004 administration of former President Hipolito Mejia, authorizations for new routes increased from 162 to 235. The news service points out that the operation of these new routes cause permanent disputes that are often violent, between competing groups and make transport in Santo Domingo even more chaotic. Clave Digital calls the public transport system, "a business without any controls."
See http://www.clavedigital.com/Portada/Articulo.asp?Id_Articulo=6226
In Santiago de los Caballeros, local officials have revealed that RD$10.0 billion in different public works projects is currently on hold. The Hispano-American Avenue, the Northern Beltway, and the highway between Santiago and Tamboril are just three of the projects on hold. In some cases, open trenches have cut off access to neighborhoods. A recent press release from the President's assistant press secretary told of the billions of pesos being spent on public works projects in Santiago. Reporters from Listin Diario went out to investigate and found that most of the projects were on hold. And the paralysis does not only affect the big projects but also the smaller ones that include street paving and school reconstruction. Another of the most urgent projects, the reconstruction and repair of the Luperon Tourist Highway between Santiago and Puerto Plata, is also stalled. So far, there have been only been muted public protests for the slow movement of these and many other projects.
The Ministry of Public Health invited Monsignor Antonio Camilo, the bishop of La Vega, to give the sermon during the ceremonies marking World Food Day. The bishop said that there were many people in the Dominican Republic suffering from hunger and that every sector should do something to alleviate the situation. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day on 16 October each year, the day in which the Organization was founded in 1945. The World Food Day and TeleFood theme for 2005, "Agriculture and intercultural dialogue", recalls the contribution of different cultures to world agriculture and argues that sincere intercultural dialogue is a precondition for progress against hunger and environmental degradation. (FAO website: http://www.fao.org/wfd/2005/index.asp?lang=en ). Monsignor Camilo told his audience that the "government can do more, since sometimes it spends millions on projects that are not so necessary, it is a question of understanding that we are dying and the problems of hunger need to be tackled..."
According to the "Spy" column in Diario Libre, the invitation extended to Monsignor Camilo was the government's way of "cooling things off", especially after the monsignor's sermon on 24 September in Santo Cerro, La Vega, which raised hackles among government officials. According to the paper, one observer noted that "You don't fight with the priests, and it seems that the government has learned its lesson."
On the same front pages that talk about Monsignor Camilo, the FAO is reporting that at least 25% of the Dominican population suffers from some form of malnutrition. Antonio Morales Mangual, the local FAO representative, told reporters that, in the region, Haiti, with 46% malnutrition is the worst case, followed by Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala. The Dominican Republic and Guatemala share the number four spot on the list of worst cases. Morales Mangual called for "a charge against hunger, until the numbers fall significantly." Both the FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture are trying to implement sustainable agriculture programs in the rural areas.
At 12:45 on Friday afternoon the first baby conceived through in-vitro fertilization, was born in Santo Domingo under the auspices of the Pan American-Israeli Institute medical program, according to Listin Diario. The baby, Frank Jesus Rodriguez Gonzalez, was born at the Corazones Unidos clinic under the care of Dr. Placido Montero, and weighed in at six pounds 12 ounces. The baby and mother are fine and were due to go home on Sunday. Dr. Montero said that another 18 mothers have gone through the procedure and are currently expecting. Of the 18, one is pregnant with triplets and another with twins, as reported in El Nacional.
Jan Tollefson has been granted the Lee Endowment for Global Freshwater award for her work in the DR to construct and install water filters. Tollefson, from Calgary in Canada has spent the last eight years helping integrate BioSand water filter technology to provide clean drinking water in the DR. She taught Dominicans to build simple concrete containers filled with layers of sand and gravel that remove impurities from water. She also worked to support small business development in the DR and set up the Add Your Light Foundation in Calgary to coordinate fundraising for a variety of projects.
http://www.globalfreshwater.org/legf/
At least 127 families have been forced to evacuate their homes in different parts of the country due to the continuation of the recent heavy rainfall across the Dominican Republic. Another 319 people were moved out of their houses to refugee centers. Several dozen other families have not been able to return to their homes because they are still under water. The Meteorological Office announced continuing showers over most of the country, due to two low pressures systems in the area. The Center for Emergency Operations has issued a Red Alert for the provinces of Barahona and Baoruco. The Meteorological Office says that the rains will be letting up as Monday progresses. In some areas the "Red Alert" warnings have been reduced. However, some showers are expected during the afternoon as a low pressure tropical wave passes over the island. The National Emergency Operations Center maintains its warnings for those living in low-lying areas to be watchful for some flooding. The office emphasized that the Red Alert for communities in Barahona province is still in effect. Some communities in the province of Azua are still cut off and the government has sent helicopters with food rations for the local inhabitants.
For nationwide daily updates and current weather forecasts, see the DR1 Weather & Beyond Forum at http://www.dr1.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34
The rains held off and the huge crowd, estimated to be almost 50,000 strong, celebrated the last day of the Presidente Music Festival in the Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo. Starting at 6:15 in the evening, the show lasted well into the early hours. Krisspy, Julian de Oro, Franco de Vito, Pavel Nunez, Sergio Vargas and Johnny Ventura were just some of the stars that delighted the fans. Daddy Yankee kept the audience enthralled from start to finish and the popular Sergio Vargas even played a bit of politics. He came on stage with a new, short hair style. Since his announcement several years ago that he would not have his hair cut until the streets of Villa Altagracia were paved, everyone thought that his plea had been answered. But, no, after two songs he took off the wig an unfurled his enormous Afro. Every popular style, from reggaeton to merengue, was on the program, and when the fireworks display had finally ended, the promoters had provided over 15,000 gallons of water for the thirsty fans.
Adriano Miguel Tejada, in his A.M. column in Diario Libre, pointed out just how important the festival is on the very local level, and in two different aspects - the economic and the social. The festival generates hundreds of millions of pesos, according to Tejada, and perhaps even more in good publicity for the country. Everyone wins - taxi drivers, security people, hotels, food vendors, and even the ticket scalpers. The newspaper editor says that the performers, the media and a whole gamut of related economic activities got something out of the festival. But Tejada also sees that the festival, for those down in the grassy part of the stadium also had a very positive effect: Kids from all different social and economic strata were all mixed together having a good time, such as portrayed in Serrat's "Fiesta", and they forgot the economic and social differences and enjoyed themselves for a few days. Tejada says that this is priceless in social and political terms.
The Dominican Winter Baseball Season kicks off this coming Wednesday, 19 October. The match between the Santo Domingo teams of Escogido Lions and Licey Tigers, Aguilas (Eagles) from Cibao (Santiago), Toros/Azucareros of La Romana, Estrellas (Stars) from San Pedro de Macoris, and Giants from San Francisco de Macoris feature many a Major League Baseball star once their US Major League commitments are over. Games played in Santo Domingo, Santiago, La Romana, Santiago and San Francisco de Macoris stadiums. Regular season is over in December. Playoffs are in January, and finals are in the first week of February to choose the Dominican team that will represent the country in the Caribbean Series.
See http://www.dr1.com/calendar
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