President Leonel Fernandez, members of the constitutional reform team, and experts on constitutional reform met in San Cristobal on 6 November, Constitution Day, to discuss the topic in depth. The President highlighted the need to reform the Magna Carta in order to adapt it to today's world. Fernandez said that the country has an unprecedented opportunity to reform the Constitution that would allow for a total consolidation of democracy, and is quoted in El Caribe as saying that if the country completes this reform it will no longer be taking steps back in its development. The President is adamant about reforming article 55 on Presidential powers, and has shown willingness to limit the powers of the executive office. Fernandez pointed out that the Dominican constitution has been reformed a total of 37 times and that when originally written it looked to the American, Haitian and French constitutions for ideas, but that now the Constitution needs to be reformed in order to create a liberal and social state. The President also encouraged debate from all sides, regardless of politics or religious belief. The President's comments on constitutional reform came during ceremonies commemorating the day when the country signed its first constitution 162 years ago, on 6 November 1844. El Caribe newspaper points out an interesting anomaly to the possibility of constitutional reform citing that while the country is embarking on a process of reforming the current constitution, many Dominicans didn't even know that yesterday's holiday was to celebrate the signing of the very first constitution. The paper quotes a woman who thought that yesterday was Independence Day.
The Dominican Republic is doing its bit to help the environment by reporting a 49% decrease in the importation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a gas that contributes to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. Environment Minister Max Puig said that there has been a 13% reduction in the importation of damaging chemicals in 2006 thanks in large part to the quota regulated by the terminal phase-out management plan for the total elimination of all ozone depleting substance, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons, carbon tetrachloride, and methyl chloroform. The country has also done a good job in complying with the Montreal Protocol, which hopes to stop ozone depletion through regulation of the production, consumption and use of dangerous substances.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted in 1987 as an international treaty to eliminate the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals, with developing countries benefiting from a ten-year grace period.
The 189 signatory countries to the protocol hope to eliminate the use and importation of the gases (completely by 2009, and the DR hopes to do so a year earlier, by 2008. Hoy newspaper reports that the DR was chosen as one of three vice presidents to the 18th Conference of the Montreal Protocol, along with Russia and Pakistan. The event was held in India between the 30 October and 3 November. Puig said that Customs officials have been trained to recognize the toxic chemical and said that a recycling mechanism has been put in place to dispose carefully of the substance.
Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Ligia Amada Melo has said that because of the stoppages at the state UASD University the semester might have to be extended to compensate for the loss of school hours, as reported in the Listin Diario. The UASD's administration and professors have been caught in a battle lasting almost three weeks over the selection of a medical insurance plan, which has led to strikes and work stoppages at the oldest university in the Americas. No solution to the problem has been announced. Employees have agreed to rescind the ARS Humano contract, but Dean Roberto Reyna is calling for completion of the 90-day contractual period before any decisions are made. The irony of the now frequent stoppages of the employees and professors at the UASD is that they have the best benefits package of any educational center in the DR.
Gradual reductions in taxes approved earlier this year when the tax levels were raised from 25 to 30%, and the tax on financial transactions, pegged at 0.15%, will not be removed or changed as had been planned, Diario Libre reports in an advance on the new fiscal reform that will be presented to President Fernandez today. Once the President reviews the fiscal reform package it will be passed on to IMF representatives for their review. The income tax rate was to have fallen by a total of five percentage points by the year 2009 and the tax on financial transactions was to have been completely eliminated by the year 2009, but the fiscal reform and the government's need for an extra RD$18 billion will not allow for these taxes to be removed or reduced. Presidency Technical Minister and the government's chief economic advisor Temistocles Montas said that the new fiscal reform is promising the affect the health and education budgets. Montas continued defending the reform by saying that it is not a tool that would allow the government to increase spending, but rather a mechanism used to reduce public spending. Montas did however point out that this would be the last fiscal reform by the current government and that it would affect the lives of the country's poorer citizens as little as possible. Montas is also quoted in Hoy newspaper as saying that the reform is needed because the government currently uses 30% of its revenue to pay off foreign debt and that this problem, which needs to be fixed, was created by the former PRD government. He says that the government spends RD$65 billion on foreign debt as opposed to only RD$190 billion in revenue. Montas made these comments on the TV show "En Una Hora."
Eighteen people, including the director, deputy director, and head of information technology at the Ministry of Finance's Pensions Department have been dismissed for their involvement in a pension theft scheme worth over RD$50 million. The mafia stole pensions that were being paid to dead people, people who didn't claim their pensions, or people who had "lost" their claims in the bureaucratic process. The scheme was discovered by Banco de Reservas officials after audits revealed that a large number of pensions were being paid out to young people, as well as increases in those payments. The 18 accused will head to trial today, according to a Finance Ministry employee who spoke to Diario Libre.
In her opinion column in today's Diario Libre, award-winning journalist Ines Aizpun writes:
"El Nacional newspaper calls them 'the owners of the country' and the rest, at last, have stopped referring to them as union members. They are the transport entrepreneurs, a powerful group that subjects their users to the most degrading of situations. And to top it all, one has to pay for it. They treat their customers as if they were doing them a favor, while they mistreat them physically and morally. (And we paid for half their fleet: "Renoves", "pollitos" and other new inventions).
"Would supermarkets be allowed to use pieces of plastic stuck together with tape instead of doors? Would shoe store vendors be allowed to fondle their customers' feet? Would grocery store vendors pack in their clients, while others sell rotten food? Would airlines be allowed to fly using rusted and half-repaired vehicles? Would a barber work without a shirt, exposing his underarm hair and spitting out of the window?
"No, nobody would be allowed to work in such hygiene and safety conditions, with the monopoly, subsidies, and preferential treatment that they enjoy, while punishing their users who are forced to use cars and buses that should have been out of circulation long ago. Curiously, they pass the "revista" review sticker inspection every year.
"And they continue, those dirty, oily, stinking "conchos" and "voladoras" that charge for such a display of arrogance and muck. So far no government has had sufficient authority to regulate this, so that we can have a public transport system that is dignified in its form, price and service.
"All we need now is for some visionary to come along, and organize them into a 'cluster,' now that they cannot kid us by saying they are a 'union', and after attending a successful workshop, they might end up obtaining even more privileges. Stranger things have happened."
For comments, write to IAizpun@diariolibre.com
Between January and October this year 328 entry visas to the US and Europe were found in the hands of Dominican and Haitians who tried to fly to the British Virgin Islands on Liat and Air Caribe airlines. The Virgin Islands has become a jump off point for people trying to reach the European continent without the required documentation. The SERVAIR security agency has helped in the apprehension of many of the documents because they are responsible for checking documents and determining their validity. New security procedures that should have been introduced at Las Americas International Airport (AILA) for passengers boarding flights to Europe will not be implemented until the Committee for Aerial Security meets, as reported in Diario Libre. Airlines are asking for some items to be put in plastic bags so that they are visible by security personnel and they also want to impose the new restriction recently introduced in Europe banning liquids, perfumes, lotions or aerosol cans in hand luggage, which was recently repealed in the United States.
The proposed renegotiation of the energy contracts would only decrease the cost of energy by 2 (US) cents per kilowatt/hour, and that cost reduction would only continue for the first few years of the new contracts. The report by the Energy Cabinet, "Integrated Plan for the Energy Sector," points out that the best option for cheap energy would be development of energy sources that don't rely heavily on petroleum. The State Run Electricity Companies (CDEEE) is trying to renegotiate the energy contracts with the private energy distributors, and the report was published as the deadline set by the CDEEE, for a response to those renegotiations, ends tomorrow. The government has announced that if the energy distributors don't agree with the renegotiations of the Madrid Accord, the contract dates will be reduced from 2016 to 2010.
The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), launched on Monday, 6 November by Transparency International (TI), ranks the DR as 19th out of 28 Latin American states and 99th of 163 countries. The report reveals that the perception of corruption in the country has increased over 2005 (85th) and 2004 (87th). The index results point to a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with a concentration of impoverished states evident at the bottom of the ranking.
Transparency International points out that the weak performance of many countries indicates that the facilitators of corruption continue to assist political elites to launder, store and otherwise profit from unjustly acquired wealth, which often includes looted state assets. "The presence of willing intermediaries - who are often trained in or who operate from leading economies -- encourages corruption; it means the corrupt know there will be a banker, accountant, lawyer or other specialist ready to help them generate, move or store their illicit income," states the organization.
See http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/cpi_2006/cpi_table
Police in Bonao are investigating an attack in which two young Taiwanese citizens were killed and four others injured at a farm on the 79th kilometer of the Duarte Highway. Twelve people have been detained in connection with the murders as police have searched in the surrounding towns for the suspected assailants. The bodies of Hoo Cheng Yin (22) and Gon Cheng Juey (19) were taken to the Regional Institute of Pathology in Santiago and then to a funeral parlor in Santo Domingo. Representatives from the Chinese Republic Development Office joined family members in mourning yesterday as a gesture of solidarity, according to Diario Libre. Police say that the assailants showed up at the ranch, held the victims at gunpoint and shot them several times. The Taiwanese students were conducting tests at the ranch when they were confronted by the assailants, who later escaped in SUVs, which were eventually recovered by the police. The victims' parents are due to arrive in the country to take their children's bodies home tomorrow. Police believe that this was a revenge attack, but say they do not have enough information to determine whether this is true or not.
Regardless of whether or not industrialists are in favor of a bilateral free trade agreement with Taiwan, the Taiwanese ambassador said that talks, which formally began on 24 October, would continue as planned. El Caribe newspaper points out that last month Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso received letters from a number of organizations representing the private sector expressing their displeasure with the possible agreement, saying that it would be inopportune economically, politically and socially. The Taiwanese ambassador also discredited what he termed China's "meddling" in the negotiations between Taiwan and the DR, and said that no country would be allowed to interfere in the process. He pointed out that the DR and Taiwan have had diplomatic relations for 62 years, and those ties continue to grow strong.
Dominican engineering companies are building many of the new hotels under construction in the Caribbean as they export innovative construction technologies, as reported in Hoy newspaper. Asonahores president Luis Rafael Lopez,says that Dominican engineers are building 3,000 of 5,000 new hotel rooms in Jamaica. The DR is the Caribbean nation with the most hotel rooms, at more than 60,000, most built by Dominican companies.
On another note Lopez also points out that many European and American retirees could choose the DR as a retirement destination and that there has been a recent boom in real estate. Lopez said that tourism is evolving because tourists are making the country their second home. He said this presents a challenge for the DR to improve on medical plans available to the foreigners and security and safety.
Dominican swimmer Marcos Diaz is attempting his toughest challenge yet by attempting to swim a 50-kilometer stretch from Boca Chica to Santo Domingo's Malecon on 3 December, which if successful would break an international record. Diario Libre reports that the swim will be the longest of his career. The world-class swimmer said that he wanted to complete the record-setting swim in front of the Dominican public, which he has never done either. Diaz said that he would try to swim as close to the shoreline as possible so that people can see him as he attempts the feat, adding that swimming in salt water for such a long distance is a very difficult challenge.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 1996-2008. DR1. All Rights Reserved.