The Dominican treasury must be bursting at the seams. In the first twenty-two days of the year, the government collected almost RD$17.5 billion. Over the first fifteen days, the government took in RD$10.9 billion, a 12% increase over estimates for the date and 21% above last year's haul for the same period. According to a press release from the Ministry of the Hacienda, the Tax Department (DGII) took in RD$6.686 billion, Customs brought in RD$3.772 billion and the Treasury contributed RD$1.4 billion. In the case of Customs collections, income to date is 64% of what was estimated for the entire month, and the DGII has garnered 94.9% of its estimates for the month.
A mass at the Santa Barbara church in Old Santo Domingo kicked off activities commemorating the celebration of Duarte's birthday on Saturday. Thousands of schoolchildren across the country walked, marched or ambled to the local Duarte statue and put down floral wreaths. In Santo Domingo, school children went to the Altar de la Patria in Independence Park to present their flowers. At the main celebration, Vice President Rafael Alburquerque accompanied the Minister of Education and the president of the Duarte Foundation to honor the memory of the Dominican Republic's Founding Father. In 1844, Duarte, accompanied by Ramon Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sanchez began the rebellion that ended with Dominican independence from Haiti. According to Education Minister Alejandrina German, the most important thing is "to emulate Duarte's respect for patriotic values, for honesty and for honest use of the nation's resources."
As part of the government's response to recent important setbacks for the country's agricultural sector, the Minister of Agriculture issued a joint declaration with the Tax Office (DGII) granting relief from the payments of anticipated tax on sales for the entire agriculture sector. Minister Salvador Jimenez said that the measure was aimed at helping farmers after the disasters of Noel and Olga. The tax break is for fiscal years 2007 and 2008.
According to reports, Santiago has become a safer city. This good news is due in large part to more motorized patrols and the willingness of neighborhood associations to help control the criminals who used to roam their streets. Over the last 14 months, in part fueled by the senseless death of young Vanessa Ramirez, who was killed by thieves who were trying to steal her cellphone, more than 40 neighborhoods have formed watch programs. These programs, together with police units have reduced crime by as much as 80% in some areas, according to Listin Diario's Pedro Jimenez. The neighborhood associations work in coordination with the government's Safe Citizen Plan, and even contribute to the maintenance of the police vehicles and cellphone service.
Faced with the import ban from Haiti, Dominican poultry farmers are asking the government to help them export their meat and eggs to places like Venezuela and Cuba. The Poultry Producers Association of Moca and Licey al Medio has asked the government to purchase 20 million chickens and ten million eggs at cost price. According to the association's president, Ambioriz Cabrera, these products could be used by the government in their school breakfast programs or any of the many social programs run by government agencies. Cabrera said that the price would be RD$20 per pound for poultry and RD$0.90 for each egg. All told, Cabrera said that they were only talking about some RD$40 million. According to the association, about 20% of the country's small-scale poultry farmers have gone under as a result of the boycott of Dominican products by the Haitian government.
The recent deaths in childbirth at the Altagracia Maternity Hospital in Santo Domingo were unprecedented, according to doctors on duty there. The fact that four young mothers died in just one day was unheard of in the hospital's 60-year history. According to Hoy newspaper, the National Committee for Maternal Mortality is looking into the cases. The chief of emergencies, Dr. Justo Jose Nicasio, told reporters he was appalled by this setback at La Altagracia, the nation's largest maternity hospital. The situation is quite worrisome, particularly in view of the fact that only 39 patients died at the hospital during all of 2007. According to reporter Altagracia Ortiz, over half of the women who come to the hospital to give birth are referred from the far south or southwest of the Dominican Republic, and are typically poor, very young and suffering from hypertension, infections or hemorrhaging. Some 30% of all cases are teenage mothers between the ages of 12 and 18. According to Dr. Nicasio, some Haitian women arrive at the hospital when their condition is "irreversible". Added to the problem is the fact that several important areas of the hospital are undergoing refurbishment and are being used for patients at the same time.
As reported in Hoy, seven of the 37 deaths of mothers giving birth at the La Altagracia hospital were Haitians that arrived to the emergency room in severe conditions and suffering from acute anemia.
Dr. Juan Cid Troncoso said that on average six Haitian women arrive to give birth every day to the hospital, most not able to speak Spanish. Teenage births are another reason for an above high mortality rate.
The Spanish International Development Agency (AECID) has announced a RD$750 million donation to the Dominican Republic. The money is to be used to fund projects for the victims of Noel and Olga, the two tropical storms that caused major damage to many parts of the country in late 2007. Juan Pablo de Laiglesias Gonzalez de Paredo made the announcement at a ceremony attended by Temistocles Montas, the Dominican Minister of the Economy, Planning and Development. Part of the money will go towards housing and rebuilding roads and other infrastructure damaged by the storms. Four and a half million euros will go towards micro-credit funds, Spanish NGOs operating in the country and health projects.
Hardware stores are reporting a sales drop of between 30% and 50% over the same period last year due to a slowdown in construction, possibly caused by price increases for steel and cement. According to Hoy newspaper, the sales figures were given out by one of the top executives of the Hardware Dealers Association, Luis Mejia, who said that 2007 had ended with good sales but 2008 was off to a very slow start. He mentioned a more expensive dollar and the fact that it is an election year, which requires "a little sensible restraint (on expenditure)". The directors of the association told Hoy reporters that the DR-CAFTA agreement had not made much of an impact on prices, since most of the imports come from China, and the DR does not have a trade agreement with that nation.
The National Council for Social Security (CNSS) will hold an important meeting today to discuss the terms of its agreement with the private clinics and doctors providing services to the Family Health Insurance programs (SFS). At issue is the request made by union leadership that the agreement contained in Resolution 147-07 should be rescinded, and that members should be allowed to access the highest level of major medical coverage without the stipulated 12 and 18-month requirements. The unions also want the cost of providing health care for parents of employees to either be eliminated or lowered. In the face of these demands, Dominican Medical Association president Waldo Ariel Suero has said that if the Resolution 147-07 were rescinded, his members would cease providing treatment for people under the SFS programs.
The most striking thing about the PLD announcement of President Leonel Fernandez as the PLD's candidate to the 2008 May election event at Santo Domingo's basketball arena yesterday was the fact that former PLD chief strategy mastermind and former Secretary of the Presidency Danilo Medina was not there. Medina, a staunch opponent of presidential re-election, was defeated in his party's primaries by Leonel Fernandez. Since then, Medina has been absent from the political scene, sitting on the sidelines and not making any comments. During the official proclamation of President Leonel Fernandez's candidacy, Medina's name was mentioned only once, when Cesar Pina Toribio, the PLD official who oversaw the primaries, said that Leonel Fernandez had garnered 71% of the vote and Danilo Medina just 29%. This is the first time that Medina is not handling presidential campaign activities for Fernandez. He served as campaign chief in the 1996 and 2004 election campaigns. He campaigned on his own as the PLD candidate in 2000, and was defeated by Hipolito Mejia. According to some, Danilo Medina was represented at Sunday's event by deputies and senators who belong to his movement.
Cucina, kitchen goods store, is announcing the start of 30% sale on all goods, and 50% on selected items. Monday, 28 February to Saturday, 2 February. Located at Roberto pastoriza 321 (between Tiradentes and Lope de Vega).
Nueva Dimension, furniture store, advertises sales of 20-50% on furniture sets. Roberto Pastoriza No. 456.
LMH is advertising 40-70% off on their Ermenegildo Zegna, Burberry, Etro, Paul Smith, Brioni, Philosophy brands.
The Dominican Republic lost one of its most famous sports journalists on Friday night. As he watched the Licey-Aguilas baseball game, Johnny Naranjo passed away. The news ran like lightening through all the broadcast booths and took some of the luster from the Aguilas' victory. Naranjo was a civil engineer who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, but who much preferred the sporting life and dedicated his entire career to transmitting and writing about sports, mainly baseball. His programs, which aired daily, were required listening for all sports fans. 'Sports with Johnny Naranjo' aired every morning, including the day he passed away.
Naranjo put up a good fight, and the whole country will miss his commentaries.
The Aguilas Cibaenas have won the Dominican Winter League Baseball Championship for the second consecutive year, earning the right to represent the Dominican Republic in this year's Caribbean World Series. It just so happens that the regional tournament will be held in the Aguilas hometown, Santiago de los Caballeros.
The final game was a nail-biter all the way. Licey took an early lead with a clutch play by Bonifacio in the third inning off of Nelson Figueroa brought in Ronnie Beliard from third base. That was all the scoring that Figueroa allowed in eight innings of superb pitching.
A homerun by Mendy Lopez in the seventh tied the game. In the eighth inning Licey sent Damaso Marte, a hard-throwing right-hander, to face Rafael Furcal. Furcal unleashed a monster homerun that gave the Aguilas a 2-1 lead. In the ninth inning, Arnaldo Munoz shut down the Tigres and the Aguilas were champs again. This is the Aguilas' 20th victory, and they now lead the Tigres 20-19 in overall victories in Dominican baseball history.
Nelson Figueroa was voted the Most Valuable Player of the Final Series because of his outstanding pitching, finishing the series 2-0.
Today the Aguilas Cibaenas and the Tigres del Licey will pick and choose from all of the players available from the other teams in the league, to make up their rosters for the Caribbean World Series. The Aguilas have already made it known that their first choice will be Brayan Pena from the Gigantes del Cibao team. The Tigres have not announced who their first choice will be. Fernando Ravelo, the Licey manager, has said that his team would go after starting pitchers in the draft.
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