President Fernandez's mother Yolanda Reyna became one of the first passengers to tour the new Alstom metro cars. Diandino Pena, director of the Transport Reorganization Office (OPRET) told reporters that the metro's first test runs would be carried out in February. He told El Dia: "We are working towards the first test, there are dozens of initial trials that have to be carried out first. Everything is ready and we will test the route in about three weeks". Pena said that construction had been the most difficult phase, and that now they have to train employees and educate users. He said that the first phase includes the acquisition of 100 feeder buses, and added that the authorities hoped to keep the cost of the first line of the metro under RD$25 billion pesos. He explained that the metro would run 16 hours a day and that there would be two shifts for employees.
Last night President Leonel Fernandez was awarded Person of the Year for 2007 by Dominican TV station TeleAntillas. Although Fernandez was honored to receive the award he seemed humbled, saying that singer/songwriter Juan Luis Guerra actually deserved the award. Guerra won six Latin Grammys during the 2007 award show. Never missing an opportunity to campaign, Fernandez said that he would do his best to win the 2008 presidential elections so that he could win the award in 2008. This is the second consecutive time Fernandez has won the award. Fernandez was chosen through a poll. One hundred and fifty two out of 632 people polled, or 24%, voted for Fernandez. Previous winners include David Ortiz, Sammy Sosa and former President Hipolito Mejia.
The Chamber of Deputies has approved the 2008 Budget and Public Spending Law for the amount of RD$300 billion. The final step in making the bill official is for President Leonel Fernandez to sign the budget into law. The budget was approved with 94 votes in favor, 3 votes against and 34 abstentions. The opposition PRD deputies continued to insist that the bill should be sent to a commission to increase allocations for the education, public health, agriculture and judiciary departments, but the PLD majority overruled this.
Chamber of Deputies president Julio Cesar Valentin accused some legislators of reinserting their non-governmental agencies into the 2008 budget with allocations of RD$1 billion. This is in addition to the "barrilitos", or funding already approved for their discretionary use, in addition to wages and benefits, already the most generous in government.
Nevertheless, he said that although he did not agree with the NGO funding, the deputies were obliged to pass the budget presented by the Senate because the legislature expires next Saturday, 15 January. It the bill had been sent to commission, it would expire and a new bill would have had to be sent from the Executive Branch and the Congressional process would have to restart.
Valentin said that as long as he is in his current post he would never again approve a budget without studying it fully, as he said he had to do when it first was sent to the Chamber in late December.
The government approved a RD$4.87 billion budget for the 210-member Congress.
Senate president Reinaldo Pared Perez denied yesterday's accusations by Chamber of Deputies president Julio Cesar Valentin that the Executive Branch and the Senate had included phantom NGOs in the 2008 budget. Hoy quotes Pared as saying "we have not included one NGO, let that be clear" but he did not provide more detail to back this up. This completely contradicts Valentin's claims that this year's budget included RD$1 billion for special NGOs. Valentin specified Senator Charlie Mariotti's NGO which was assigned RD$5.4 million and others belonging to Senator Cristina Lizardo who will receive RD$2.4 million for her NGOs. Listin Diario reports that the discussion became heated as Deputies challenged the Senators' inclusion of NGOs. Partido Popular Cristiano representative Radhames Castro pointed out the generous allocations to Lizardo and Marrioti's NGOs. Castro added that even after the NGOs were abolished, Mariotti and Lizardo continued to head NGOs that manage RD$12 million per year. Castro said that Mariotti, for example, had been critical of the Deputies' swift approval the budget in December, but never queried the legality of his own NGO, which was included in the budget. Christian Paredes, spokesperson for the PLD block, said that the budget should have been re-assessed in order to adjust the allocations for Education, Public Health, the Judicial Branch and the UASD University, while PRSC spokesperson Ramon Rogelio Genao said that the 2008 budget had to be approved quickly so that the government didn't continue functioning with the 2007 budget. However, Santiago deputy Angel Acosta accused Genao of supporting the budget because it includes one of his own NGOs. Even though there has been much discussion about the NGOs, Listin Diario writes that Valentin met with budget director Luis Hernandez for two hours before the Deputies sat down to review the budget.
The breakdown of the National Budget as sent by the Presidency and approved by the legislators is as follows (millions):
Public debt: RD$70,260.6
National Treasury: RD$36,300.8
Subsidies: RD$30,284
Presidency: RD$28,295.9
Public Health: RD$26,902.2
Education: RD$26,789.2
Public Works: RD$23,670.3
Interior & Police: RD$22,125.7
Hacienda RD$10,353.1
Armed Forces: RD$9,621.1
Economy & Planning: RD$7,094.7
Agriculture: RD$6,680.2
Pensions: RD$6,016.8
National Congress: RD$4,873.1
Higher Education: RD$4,005.9
Judicial Branch: RD$3,629.4
Central Electoral Board: RD$3,547.7
Environment: RD$3,391.1
Foreign Relations: RD$2,936.0
Sports: RD$1,973.8
Industry & Commerce: RD$1,482.6
Labor: RD$1,448.4
Tourism: RD$978.8
Chamber of Accounts: RD$423.9
Women: RD$327.2
Youth: RD$286.9
Former District Attorney and dean of the Unibe Law School, Guillermo Moreno, officially accepted the presidential nomination by the Movimiento Independencia Unidad y Cambio (MIUCA). Moreno went right into campaign mode saying that this campaign will "provide the answers the public needs and will represent a new, progressive, popular and plural electoral option." Journalists asked Moreno whether his wife Aura Celeste Fernandez would have to resign her post as judge at the Central Electoral Board due to the conflict of interests. Moreno said that his wife is an autonomous citizen who is responsible for what she does, and it was not up to him to speak on her convictions and professional ethics. Moreno, who built a strong reputation as District Attorney for the National District during the first Leonel Fernandez presidency (1996-2000) said that his campaign would only be worthwhile if the discontented citizenry agreed that it was time to act.
The Tax Department (DGII) announces that for 2008, RD$26,241.86 is the tax threshold for wages. Employees making up to that amount will not pay taxes. This means that people making annual wages of up to RD$290,243 (RD$24,186.91 a month) do not need to pay taxes. Anyone earning RD$290,244 to RD$435,364 will pay 15% on the difference. People making RD$435,365 to RD$604,672 will pay 20%, on the differential, and those earning RD$604,672.01 or more will pay the maximum 25% tax. The DGII reports that 91% of Dominican workers make less than RD$24,186 a month, as reported in Listin Diario.
The Dominican and Haitian authorities will meet at the Jimani Hotel at 10am tomorrow to discuss the recent announcement that Haiti would ban the import of Dominican chickens and eggs after cases of poultry flu (the H5N2 strain of the virus) were found in the DR. Livestock Department director Dr. Angel Faxas said Agricultural Minister Salvador Jimenez would attend the meeting with Haitian agricultural experts. Despite the announcement, on Tuesday, the director for the DR Center of Exports and Investments (CEI-RD Eddy Martinez said that the exports of chicken through Jimani and Pedernales were normal, although he couldn't confirm if exports through Dajabon had been affected. Faxas said that the Dominican authorities expect whatever restrictions to be lifted considering that there have only been isolated cases of bird flu.
Despite reports and rumors of bird flu, Hoy is reporting that sales of chicken in supermarkets and colmados haven't been affected. The authorities have explained the strain that has appeared does not affect humans. Hoy writes that if there is a decrease in the sale of chicken it's because Dominicans are still recovering financially from the recent holiday celebrations and not because of Avian flu.
The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has announced that due to budget constraints numerous projects have been either canceled or postponed, including registering 600,000 undocumented Dominicans and issuing them with cedulas. The JCE announced that it would suspend several projects when the government cut its requested budget in half. Roberto Rosario, head of the Administrative Chamber at the JCE, said that this particular project has a cost of RD$400 million. Also suspended is the creation of a specialized electoral monitoring group, made up of 1,200 people. Rosario also said 700 people were being dismissed from the JCE and another 400 could lose their jobs. Rosario also clarified that the JCE's budget is of RD$2.5 billion, and that the board's operating budget is actually RD$1.5 billion.
Continuing to plead his case that the JCE didn't receive the budget it needed, Rosario said that the JCE manages 164 electoral boards (111 of which are in rented premises), 89 cedula centers and 162 civil registries (75 of which are rented in low quality premises). There are also 19 additional offices outside the DR serving 128,000 registered voters.
According to Rosario, budget costs for publicity alone totaled RD$100 million and that this figure would be higher in 2008.
Central Electoral Board (JCE) judge Jose Angel Aquino says there is a gang called "La Rapidita" forging ID documents for foreigners, criminals or people who need new identities. Aquino says that the authorities are investigating several civil registries and added that some Chinese nationals have been given these fake documents. Aquino explained that the gang uses stolen JCE equipment to fake the documents. Aquino did say that it is increasingly difficult to use dead people's identities since they are being taken out of the voting registries. He said that document forgeries would not end until a fingerprint and biometric security system is put into place.
Deputy Minister of Interior and Police and director of the Alcoholic Beverages Control Program Jose Pantaleon Maria Arias says that all the bars, clubs and nightspots that operate within a resort or hotel, like the Hotel Hispaniola, aren't required to obey alcohol decree if they are a five-star hotel. This effectively allows them to sell alcohol without any restrictions. Quoted in Listin Diario, Arias responded to claims made by the Bars and Restaurants Association that the Ministry of Interior and Police is allowing the LED Nightclub on the premises of the Hispaniola Hotel to operate without any restrictions. According to the Association, this is unfair competition with other popular nightclubs that have to close at midnight or at 2am on weekends. The Deputy Minister said that if they wanted to operate like LED they should move their business inside a hotel.
Director General of Prisons Jose Ignacio Sandoval says that the image he has in his system of Elisa Deidana Gonzalez doesn't match the woman interviewed by journalist Alicia Ortega.
Nevertheless, Rafael Brito Pena, District Attorney for Azua, told Diario Libre that he understood the person Ortega presented and the photograph they have look alike.
Gonzalez was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of businessman Jose Castro. Listin Diario explains that Gonzalez served four years for Castro's death, but due to a Habeas Corpus ruling she was freed. She was then retried and sentenced to 30 years. However, Gonzalez did not serve her term and became a fugitive from justice. Alicia Ortega recently interviewed a woman claiming to be Gonzalez in El Prado barrio in Azua. Gonzalez was sentenced for murdering Castro, in complicity with her employer Miriam Brito who was recently pardoned by President Leonel Fernandez. The case was taken on by women's defense groups, which said that justice had failed to protect Brito, the intellectual author of the crime and the victim of a violent and abusive husband.
El Caribe reports that city councilors from Santo Domingo East, the National District and other municipalities have decided to follow the precedent set by their colleagues in San Cristobal and increase their benefits. The San Cristobal councilors recently increased their benefits from RD$100,000 to RD$150,000 (supposedly so they could afford luxury SUVs). El Caribe reports that the National District city councilors have now approved increases in their benefits from RD$90,000 to RD$113, while their counterparts in Santo Domingo Este announced increases from RD$80,000 to RD$92,000. In Santiago there is talk of doubling city councilors benefits from RD$44,000.
The city councilors are ignoring that the Municipal Law establishes that only 25% of municipal funding can be used on wages and benefits, while of the remaining 75%, 40% should go for investing in the community and another 31% for services.
President Leonel Fernandez's presidential election campaign chief, Francisco Javier Garcia, is asking PRD presidential candidate Miguel Vargas Maldonado to explain the sources of the funds he used to build his luxury villa in Casa de Campo that reportedly cost RD$800 million. Javier Garcia said that Vargas Maldonado reported a fortune worth RD$119 million in 2000, when he was appointed Minister of Public Works under President Hipolito Mejia. Javier Garcia also questioned the origin of the funding Vargas Maldonado used to purchase the Hotel Hispaniola when he was at the time Minister of Public Works.
Javier Garcia announced that the Fernandez candidacy would be officially proclaimed in an event scheduled for 11am at the Palacio de los Deportes, on 27 January.
Super Pola supermarket is advertising sales in their meat departments.
Jumbo supermarket is advertising sales in their meat and fish departments.
Ole! Supermarket is advertising sales in fruits and vegetables.
If not for a mistake by the Estrellas Orientales, the Gigantes would have been out of this playoff race. The Gigantes won ugly yesterday as they beat the Estrellas 4-3 in the tenth inning. Fernando Tatis made the key error that allowed Kendry Morales to score and give the once-strong Gigantes only their fourth win in this year's playoffs. The Gigantes will need more of that luck if they want to play for a championship. Last night's game between the Aguilas and the Tigres was suspended and will be made up at a later date. Rain was the indirect cause for the suspension. Although it wasn't raining at game time, rain earlier in the day caused severe damage to the field, making conditions unfavorable for play.
Standings:
| Team | Win | Lost | Percent | Games Behind |
| Estrellas Orientales | 7 | 4 | .637 | -- |
| Tigres del Licey | 6 | 5 | .545 | 1.0 |
| Aguilas Cibaenas | 5 | 6 | .455 | 2.0 |
| Gigantes del Cibao | 4 | 7 | .363 | 3.0 |
Estadio Tetelo Vargas / 8:00 p.m.: Licey - Estrellas
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