DR1 will be taking a Christmas break and the news will not be updated on Friday, 22 December, Monday, 25 December or Tuesday, 26 December. A summary of headline news over the Christmas holiday will appear in the Wednesday, 27 December and Thursday, 28 December editions. Likewise, there will be no news updates on Friday, 29 December, Monday, 1 January and Tuesday, 2 January, on the occasion of the New Year holiday. Again, a long weekend news summary will be published on Wednesday, 3 January. Readers can always check in to the 24/7 posts and news commentary at our DR1 Forums. See http://www.dr1.com/forums
For more information on holiday dates for 2007, see http://dr1.com/travel/prepare/holidays.shtml
President Leonel Fernandez says that the Dominican Republic receives US$3.5 billion in remittances each year and declared the 20th of December "Dominican Day" in honor of Dominicans living abroad. Fernandez pointed out that 85% of all business that the DR conducts is made with the United States and that with the state of Florida alone commerce generates US$8 billion per year.
President Leonel Fernandez continued to avoid discussion of his possible re-election while he was distributing Christmas boxes in San Cristobal yesterday to the tune of re-election merengues. The government has announced that they will be donating a total of 747,000 boxes nationwide.
Fernandez personally handed out the gift boxes, which included basic food supplies, and mingled and conversed with the locals. Fernandez was met with much support and signs that called for his re-election, and in some cases the President was kissed and hugged by some of his supporters. Fernandez was quoted in El Caribe newspaper as saying that this shows that he has public support and that the public understands and appreciates the work the PLD is doing to get the country moving. The President visited San Cristobal, Elias Pina, San Juan de la Maguana, Azua and Peravia and is scheduled to visit Santiago Rodriguez, Dajabon, Mao, Navarrete, Santiago and Montecristi today. The boxes cost RD$1,000 each. Accompanying Fernandez on his trip was Felix Bautista, Director of the Office of Supervising Engineers for Public Works, Public Works Minister Freddy Perez, Education Minister Alejandrina Guzman, and Luis Acosta Moreta, Director of the office for Community Development.
The PRSC and the Joaquin Balaguer Foundation are also be handing out Christmas boxes to more than 100,000 families this Christmas season. The boxes will cost an estimated RD$1 million and Rafael Bello Andino, who heads the foundation, says that PRSC members gave part of their Christmas bonuses to help prepare the boxes. The distribution will begin on Friday and the PRSC says they hope to maintain a tradition continued by the late former President Balaguer for more than four decades.
A US$50 million loan from the World Bank will finally be handed out to the DR either today or tomorrow, according to Technical Minister of the Presidency Temistocles Montas. The disbursal is part of a total US$150 million loan package from the World Bank. Montas said that the loan had been approved in May 2005, but hadn't been disbursed up until now. Montas also said that the disbursal of this loan means that a quick payment of the rest of the funds would now be possible. The money will be directed towards helping the energy sector.
A new bill that is a pre-requisite for Dominican airlines to fly to the United States was passed yesterday in Congress. The new Civil Aviation Bill replaces Law 505 on Civil Aviation that dated back to 1969. Its contents meet US Federal Aviation Agency and the International Organization for Civil Aviation requirements. The new law grants juridical, technical and administrative autonomy to the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute that will replace the present Civil Aviation Department (Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil), and makes the Civil Aviation Board another autonomous institution. The President will appoint the directors of both of these entities. The bill considerably increases fines for violations. The bill passes to President Fernandez for his signing into law.
The fiscal reform, which was passed by the Senate on Tuesday, now moves to the Chamber of Deputies for review in January. Though the PLD party controls the lower chamber of Congress, and the political committee of the PLD has instructed all its legislators to vote in favor of the reform or face sanctions, it is not a question of plain sailing. Of the 178 deputies in the lower chamber, 96 legislators are PLD members, while 60 represent the PRD and 22 are from the PRSC. The problem lies in that the PLD political faction supporting Danilo Medina's presidential ambitions is said to be planning to vote against the reform, as well as the opposition of the united front of the PRD and PRSC. This means that of the 89 total votes needed for the measure to pass through the lower chamber there only need to be seven dissident votes from PLD members in order to reject the fiscal reform.
The Dominican National Brewery (CND) is still not satisfied with the government's proposed ad valorem tax on alcohol. The government reduced its ad valorem tax on alcoholic beverages from 20% to 15%, but the CND is continuing to argue that alcoholic beverages should be taxed according to the level of alcohol. Teodoro Hidalgo, Corporate Affairs for the Leon Jimenes Group, pleaded with the Chamber of Deputies to remove the proposed tax on beer and said that in the last 36 months the beer sector has had to increase taxes by 224%. El Caribe writes that a beer that costs RD$50 could end up costing RD$75, an increase of 50%.
The report on the Dominican economy released by the Central Bank, for the period of January-September is missing key information. The data provided by the report doesn't include the numerical value of employees and doesn't include specifics on payroll. The report in fact only provided the amount of government employees in percentages. Also the report only included figures for central government, decentralized and autonomous institutions and municipalities, not temporary employment. Using data from 2005 and comparing it to figures released by the Central Bank, Diario Libre writes that the government has 329,414 employees, 36,414 in decentralized entities, and 51,682 in the municipalities. The Central Bank report indicates that the government payroll increased by 412% during the period in question, as did payroll from the executive branch, by 20.5%. The army also grew by 3.2% due to recruitment. Decentralized institutions grew by 53% as compared to the same period in 2005. The government has been criticized for padding the public payroll with unnecessary jobs that have increased government spending and forced increased taxes.
Not all women are happy that the government is subsidizing hair care for women this holiday season. El Caribe comments that some women feel that it is a way for the government to run away from the real problems. The paper writes that many women feel that instead of giving the money in this way, it should be used for other important causes. Hoy also carries a similar story, voicing concerns from some women who would rather have "bad hairdos and full stomachs" during the Christmas holidays. The Woman and Health Collective view this plan as a form of populism, saying that it exploits women's sexual image. They say that women deserve more than that. The group cites the high maternal mortality, teenage pregnancies and AIDS rates among women as examples of programs that are more deserving of government funds. The hair program did generate a windfall of public opinion, as it was debated on talk shows nationwide, with more in favor than against the measure.
Department for Drug Control (DNCD) Radhames Ramirez Ferreira says that Colombians deported from the DR for drug trafficking manage to return to the country using false documents that they received illegally from the Central Electoral Board (JCE). National Department for Investigation head Sigfrido Pared Perez says that he has concrete evidence that many people, not just drug traffickers, have gone to registry offices and received new identities in this way. Ferreira pointed out that many traffickers in the country are using double identities as just one of the many ways of evading justice. Ferreira is quoted in El Caribe as saying that the justice system in the DR is incompetent and benign, stating that 18 years track record is proof of this. But the concerns about traffickers don't stop there. Attorney General Radhames Jimenez Pena says he is concerned about what he called the farce surrounding sentences handed down to drug traffickers and will meet with Supreme Court president Jorge Subero Isa on the matter. Jimenez cited the case of a man caught on 15 December with 388 kilos of cocaine in his cockfighting club, his second offense, who was let out on RD$100,000 bail. Diario Libre columnist Homero Figueroa points out that the Dominican justice system, in relation to drug cases, is not only blind, it can't smell either. Figueroa writes that some Dominican judges get "happy" when these kinds of cases come before them and that bad instrumentation allows for bad sentences to be emitted.
An arrest warrant has been issued for the person accused of heading the "mafia" at the Pensions Department that was defrauding the government of millions of pesos. A name has not been provided. Octavio Lister, head of the government's anti-corruption department Depreco, said that the warrant was issued because the former head of the Pensions Department has been refusing to cooperate and appear in front of the Public Ministry. But the problem now is finding his whereabouts. Lister says that up to this point authorities have no clue where this person is and says that if he can't be located and brought to justice, judgment for the persons they do have in custody will temporarily have to suffice. Lister explained that 18 people had been fired in connection with the case, although 23 were interviewed in total. Earlier this week the Finance Minister blasted the work of the Justice system and Depreco saying that he had done his job by discovering the fraud but that the justice system had been slow in prosecuting those responsible.
A network of illegal credit card producers has been dismantled by the National Police after three members of the network were caught trying to pay at McDonalds using a fake credit card. Venezuelans Enzo Buzzoloti, Oswaldo Leon and Jimmy Palomino were caught as they tried to use one of the false credit cards to pay for their meal. Chief of Police Bernardo Santana Paez said the Buzzoloti has an international arrest warrant in his name. A magnetic card reader, an ATM simulating case, three laptops and several credit cards belonging to the men were confiscated.
The Robert Reid Children's Hospital will have a burns unit next year, to be funded by Taiwanese government cooperation. Ambassador Eduardo Chen made the announcement yesterday. Hoy newspaper reports that the First Lady's Office will oversee the unit that will feature four or five operating rooms, and 10-12 beds. The unit will cost an estimated US$1 million.
Jose Garcia, a Dominican accused of murdering Cesar Vazquez in July 1991, has had his sentence annulled by a judge in New York. Garcia, a father of three, had been accused of the murder of the man in the Bronx, but oddly enough Garcia was in the Dominican Republic at the time of the murder leaving many to wonder why this simple fact wasn't used as part of his defense. Hoy newspaper writes that Vazquez had been apprehended in the DR the day before the murder for traveling on false papers and then was released on the same day the crime was committed. Although Judge Lewis A. Kaplan didn't order Garcia's immediate release, he did say that this was an extremely disturbing case, adding that the attorney's actions had been far below minimum standards. The authorities still have the option of trying Garcia again if they believe they have enough evidence in the matter, but according to Hoy, this is unlikely.
Four Dominican firefighters out of a group of five who were sent to the United States for training have not returned to the DR. The firefighting team departed from the Cibao International Airport in Santiago. In the second trip to the US, three firefighters left for training and only one, Pedro Bautista, returned. He has since been promoted to the rank of captain as a result. The authorities are investigating the incident and want to find out whether airport personnel were responsible for aiding the firefighters' escape. Emilio Antonio Filion and Pedro Antonio Almonte are among the four who stayed in the US. The Cibao Airport firefighting corps is an independent firefighting group started by authorities at the airport and has previously sponsored two training courses in New York.
President George Bush signed the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Enhancement (HOPE) bill that offers greater incentives for investment in Haiti yesterday.
The president and vice president of the Dominican Association of Free Zones announced that the initiative will help create more than 75,000 jobs in Haiti and another 20,000 in the DR. Luis Manuel Pellerano explained that the legislation allows for companies setting up operations in Haiti to source apparel from anywhere in the world. In addition to permitting imports from Asia, the legislation also opens doors for the DR to export material manufactured here by Gildan and Hanes, as reported in Hoy. They explained that since Haiti is not included in DR-CAFTA, the provision would support economic development in Haiti. Pellerano and Torres explained that the estimated 20,000 jobs to be created here come from pre-production and finishing work that would be carried out in the DR. Labor intensive processes would take place in Haiti, where labor costs are much lower.
The Hope Act now benefits Haiti with the same political, economic and labor criteria and the same textile and apparel trans-shipment requirements as are in effect for Africa under AGOA. In addition to the current Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) benefits, it provides new rules of origin for apparel:
* 50 percent of the value of the finished product must be of U.S., Haitian, FTA, or preference program origin in years one through three; in year four, the percentage grows to 55 percent and in year five, to 60 percent; also allows the new test to be applied on an annual, aggregated basis.
* Caps the amount of trade under the new test at 1 percent of U.S. apparel imports in year one, growing by 0.25 percentage points per year through year five.
* Allows a "single transformation" rule of origin for bras, so that components can be sourced from anywhere as long as they are assembled in Haiti.
* Provides a small tariff preference level (TPL) for woven apparel, of 50 million square meter equivalents (SMEs) in years one and two and 33.5 million SMEs in year three.
* Liberalizes the rule of origin for wire harnesses, providing benefits if 50 percent of the value added is of U.S., Haitian, or FTA origin.
Things continue to get interesting in the Dominican Winter Baseball League. With only two days left in the season, the race for the final spot is now down to two teams and anything can happen. Last night the Toros stayed alive as they beat the Escogido 6-1 and mathematically eliminated the team from playoff contention. All the Escogido have to play for now is pride. Things got even more interesting as the Estrellas lost to the Aguilas 5-4 last night, creating a tie for the fourth and final spot in the playoffs. It was the Aguilas 12th straight home victories and with their win, and a Gigantes loss, the Aguilas moved into first place in the standings. Licey beat the Gigantes 3-2, but the biggest concern for these teams now is having a healthy and ready roster for the post-season. Tonight is an important baseball night. The Azucareros face off against the Estrellas in a head to head. The season for both teams could be decided here.
Standings
| Team | W-L | Avg. | Games Behind |
| Aguilas | 31 - 17 | .646 | -- |
| Gigantes | 30 - 18 | .625 | 1.0 |
| Licey | 29 - 19 | .604 | 2.0 |
| Estrellas | 19 - 29 | .396 | 12.0 |
| Azucareros | 19 - 29 | .396 | 12.0 |
| Escogido | 16 - 32 | .333 | 15.0 |
DR1 wishes all its readers a Merry Christmas.
Check out the Calendar section for where to go for Christmas partying, see http://www.dr1.com/calendar
And enjoy a taste of Dominican Christmas at Bon ice cream stores nationwide. On the occasion of Christmas, the company has launched its Ilusion Navidena flavor, a delicious creamy blend of rum raisin ice cream blended with mini-chocolate kisses, raisins and caramelized nuts.
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