Yesterday, Sunday 11 November confirmed that “The struggle has just begun,” as dozens of organizations had said during a peaceful protest against Tax Reform Law 253-12 outside the National Congress building on Tuesday, 6 November. Diario Libre describes how Independence Park, at the Gate of El Conde, was the setting that hundreds of people chose for the demonstration, in a mass expression of opposition to the law signed by the President on Saturday, 10 November following the passing of the bill in Congress the previous Thursday, 8 November.
The mostly young middle class demonstrators used placards, national flags, black clothes and black flags as their props for expressing rejection of the much talked about and controversial “package”. This, without a doubt, could be defined as one of the most energetic demonstrations by civil society against the tax increase. The protestors sang “La Guagua” by Juan Luis Guerra, an allusion to the fact that the country, like the bus in the song, is “in reverse.” To the sound of trumpets, guitars and drums, the crowd chanted: “The (fiscal) hole belongs to Leonel; let him pay it.”
As well as expressing their opposition to the fiscal reform, the occasion was used to demand better education, health and an end to violence. The demonstrators also challenged the National Police n whose agents surrounded the area – about the death of UASD student William Florian Ramirez, at the hands of one of its members. “Not with bombs and not with bullets, this struggle will not be stopped,” they shouted. Protestors called for the resignation of Police chief Major General Jose Armando Polanco Gomez.
The Medina administration is being criticized for failing to explain the reason for the increase in the record RD$187 billion fiscal debt. Former President Leonel Fernandez blamed the fiscal deficit on the Hipolito Mejia administration (2000-2004). Civil society and the private sector say that the fiscal deficit is the consequence of political patronage and wasteful spending in the PLD administrations.
Diario Libre reports that former President Leonel Fernandez, an excellent public speaker, announced he would speak on economic matters on Tuesday, 13 November at 10pm. The broadcast will be televised by Telemicro, Channel 5 and a network of radio and TV stations.
http://www.diariolibre.com/destacada/2012/11/11/i359191_manifestantes-exigen-anular-ley-reforma-fiscal.html
http://www.eldia.com.do/nacionales/2012/11/11/98938/Rechazo-contra-la-reforma-continua