Government Spokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena told the press yesterday that statements made by Jesuit priest and economist, Father Jose Luis Aleman about the construction of the metro show the priest’s disregard for the history of the Church. Rodriguez commented that the government’s embarking on the construction of the first Santo Domingo metro line is comparable to the Roman Catholic Church’s construction of cathedrals in the past. “I would tell Father Aleman that his statement does not acknowledge the history of the Church over the centuries. The church, at times of major shortages would build cathedrals and churches for the people because it understood that those were places for socializing and meeting, and today we have access to beautiful cathedrals that are part of our history, thanks to decisions by the governors of those times,” argued Rodriguez.
In a recent TV program, Father Jose Luis Aleman said that the metro was a deceitful project, and an imposition on Dominicans that is rejected by wide sectors of the population, above all because it is being undertaken at the cost of improving health and education programs. Father Aleman made these comments on Channel 2/TeleAntillas’s Uno mas Uno show, and said that despite the grand scale of the project, no one has a real notion of what it will cost. He criticized the fact that with the failure to pass the 2006 Budget, where the government has allotted RD$1.8 billion for the metro, the Presidency has the discretionary right to use 30% of the budget, which he said generates lots of suspicion because there are no mechanisms to control the Executive Branch’s spending in these circumstances.
Father Aleman said that the metro would not reduce congestion, nor serve to solve Santo Domingo’s traffic problems. He added that it “will create a tremendous problem at the expense of neglecting health, education and other important sectors.”
He urged the government to place all its accounts in a single account, visible for Congress and the country, so that there is transparency, and to prevent the government from spending more than it receives.
He also criticized the fact that the government has not seriously addressed the problems of electricity, health and education that he considers should be given top priority. He doubted that the country could work without reliable electricity at times when all the talk is about trade opening and competitiveness.
He rejected the government’s claim that the tax burden on Dominicans is 18%, and said it is more like 40% because the middle class has to cover all its expenditures for health, education, electricity and security, things that the government should be providing.
Aleman estimated that the Central Bank’s quasi-fiscal deficit, which is at around RD$150 billion is about to enter into a crisis because of the heavy burden of interest to be paid and the devaluation of the peso. He also mentioned that the commercial banks are only financing consumer credit, and not investments. He commented that the commercial banks are no longer financial intermediaries, but rather parasites of the Central Bank. “They do not have to invest their depositors’ resources, because commercial banks instead are purchasing CDs of the Central Bank, which has paralyzed part of the economy,” he commented.
Father Aleman said that contrary to what some may say, the country needs a Congress in the hands of the opposition, while there are no effective mechanisms for control among government powers.