DR1 Daily News will not be updated on Thursday or Friday, on the occasion of the Easter Week holiday. News will be compiled for the Monday, 24 March 2008 issue. For major headline news and breaking stories and commentaries, refer to the dr1.com/forums that are open 24/7.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce announced yesterday that the sale of ethanol-mixed gasoline has been approved. The ministry said that the measure would save consumers up to 30% in fuel costs. The mixture of 7.5% ethanol and 92.5% gasoline is now legally for sale. Another energy saving measure announced is the installation of new traffic lights that will save 90% of the current energy costs of traffic lights that use incandescent light bulbs.
One and a half thousand Metropolitan Transit Authority (AMET) officers will be on duty over this week-long Easter holiday, as part of the prevention program called 'Holy Week 2008, without Accidents or Drugs'. AMET's commanding officer, General Latif Mahfoud Rodriguez, said that his people would be equipped with 1,000 breathalyzers to test for drunkenness and prevent accidents. During Easter Week last year, 32 deaths were recorded, 18 of which were traffic related.
In an attempt to reduce traffic jams along the highways in and out of Santo Domingo, the Ministry of Public Works has decreed free passage through the toll booths on all roads leading away from Santo Domingo. This is to expedite traffic during the peak domestic holiday. These include the 6 November Highway to San Cristobal, the Las Americas Expressway to the east and the Duarte Expressway to the Cibao and the north coast. At the same time, the ministry announced the prohibition of all heavy vehicles. This ban on heavy traffic starts on 20 March and continues until 23 March. Only trucks hauling fuels and perishable foods will be allowed to travel, and these need to procure special, written permits for this purpose. In addition to these steps the ministry has also set up a series of small emergency workshops in Nagua, San Francisco de Macoris, Santiago, Puerto Plata, Bonao, San Cristobal, Azua and the Navarrete-Montecristi crossroads. All this is part of the Easter Week 2008 Safety Plan.
The Emergency Operations Center (COE) is warning people living along the coastline of the Dominican Republic about the danger of very high waves from the shores of La Altagracia (Bavaro, Miches) in the East to Montecristi in the Northwest. In fact, the COE is advising people not to go to the beaches until the situation is reviewed, and has banned bathing along the shores from Montecristi to Higuey. The National Meteorology Office is maintaining its advisory on high winds and waves along the northern shoreline from Cabo Engano to Montecristi. They say that waves of between 12 and 15 feet are expected, as well as coastal flooding. The Weather Department says that the southern coastline is not affected by the unseasonal phenomenon.
Penn & Schoen's most recent poll shows President Leonel Fernandez winning in the first round with a comfortable 56% of the vote, up six points from the November survey by the US polling company, as reported in Hoy. The survey was carried out with 1,010 interviews from 4-6 March. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1%. Miguel Vargas Maldonado, running for the PRD, shows 32%, three points below his score in the previous Penn & Schoen poll in November. Amable Aristy Castro, of the PRSC, lost two voter preference points, and is now at 8%, according to the poll. Four percent of voters said they were still undecided. Cuarta Via coalition candidate Eduardo Estrella's standing declined from 1% in November to 0% in the March poll.
The government-appointed commission that reviewed the handling of the Tavera Dam during Tropical Storm Olga has decreed that the dam was managed "adequately". Readers will remember the incredible damage inflicted on the city of Santiago and the farm areas downriver, caused by a wall of water released from the dam in the middle of the night. The commission did report that the Operations Commission for Managing Lakes in Emergencies was not able to operate appropriately due to the lack of a coordinator to chair the commission. The commission also made a series of recommendations, including the study and subsequent construction of the infrastructure needed to reduce risks in the case of future events, especially around the footbridge that crosses the Yaque River at the end of Fernando Valerio Street, the steel bridge that crosses the same river to La Otra Banda and the area where the Gurabo stream and the river merge. The government commission's report says that the floodgates were operated according to the manual, and places part of the blame on population growth and urban sprawl in Santiago as contributory factors in the disaster. The report said "the characteristics of Olga did not justify a prioi any preventive measures at the complex (Tavera), in the first place because it (Olga) never acquired the category of a hurricane, and because the severity of the predicted rains were not being confirmed by the information on rain that could be generated in real time by the available telemetry stations."
For more on the case, see http://www.dr1.com/forums/weather-beyond/...
The nation's main highway, the Duarte Expressway, is also the one where the most accidents occurred. According to Listin Diario, the highway was the scene of 155 traffic accidents that resulted in 173 deaths in 2007. Most of these occurred between kilometers 40 and 46, according to National Police reports processed by the Director General of Traffic (DGTT). For the country as a whole, with a population of around 9 million and more than 2 million vehicles in circulation, the 2007 statistics are numbing: 1,902 traffic related deaths and 6,442 injuries. Most fatalities occurred in the National District, 1,091, as a result of 23,656 accidents. Sixty percent of the victims were motorcycle riders, and many of the survivors were permanently injured.
However, the National District was not the most deadly area of the Dominican Republic in terms of deaths per accident. This dubious honor fell to the eastern province of La Altagracia, where 117 people died in traffic accidents, most at the Cruce de Veron near Punta Cana. In Santo Domingo the most dangerous places are along 27 de Febrero Avenue and the intersections with Abraham Lincoln, Maximo Gomez, Tiradentes, Nunez de Caceres, Leopoldo Navarro and Dr. Defillo avenues. The DGTT analysis says that the main cause of accidents was reckless driving, with most accidents involving people between the ages of 18-30. Traffic victims were generally in the 25-45 year old range. In the Dominican Republic, most accidents occur not on weekends, but on Monday, between 11am and noon, and December is the most dangerous month.
The unions that control freight and passenger transport services have announced a temporary halt to the threatened fair increases brought on by the increase in the costs of diesel fuel for their vehicles. CNTU leader Ramon Perez Figuereo said that the measure came as a result of the need to allow as many people as possible to enjoy travel during the Easter Week recess. He warned that the unions would meet to discuss fare increases once the holiday was over. Perez Figuereo also told Listin Diario reporter Adriana Peguero that fare increases of five or ten pesos were being suggested, as well as an increase in freight costs of between RD$500 and RD$2,000 for hauling products between Constanza and Dajabon, Santo Domingo, Elias Pina, Jarabacoa and Higuey. Meanwhile, the director of the Land Transport Office (OTTT) said that the unions do not have the authority to change the fares, and, if they do try to do so, the OTTT will force them to return the money.
PLD strategist Temistocles Montas, who is also Minister of Economy, has announced contacts with the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States State Department as part of the preparations for sending observers to the 2008 Presidential elections in May. The PLD also announced a conference call to the Carter Center as part of the ongoing process of inviting international observers to the elections. Montas said that he had met with Thomas Shannon, the State Department official in charge of overseeing election processes in the hemisphere. Recent polls show President Leonel Fernandez winning in a first round of the election.
The Central Electoral Board has given the government four days to explain the issues surrounding the "CB payrolls", a scheme that apparently gives RD$3,000 or RD$4,000 checks to unemployed PLD party members. Larger amount checks are also reported to have been issued to leaders of the Base Committees of the PLD. The full body of magistrates also gave the Administrative Chamber of the board four days to come up with a brief relating to the complaint made by Nuria Piera on "Nuria en el 9", an investigative television show. The Administrative Chamber has asked Presidency Minister Luis Manuel Bonetti to provide an explanation for these payouts, since such action is prejudicial to the other political parties. The JCE magistrates sent a copy of the program to Bonetti.
Today's Diario Libre page two editorial, written by editor Adriano Tejada, says that if any proof was needed about the famous CB payrolls, it has been given by former PLD party activist lawyer Pedro P. Yermenos Forastieri in an article published in El Nacional newspaper. Yermenos comments in the opinion piece on the government's decision to put party leaders (Base Committee members) on the national payroll. This irregular use of taxpayer money was denounced by journalists Marino Zapeta in his radio program and blog and Nuria Piera on her radio and TV talk shows. Yermenos now reveals that the scandal that the journalists have brought into the open was the last straw that led him to resign from the PLD in September 2007after 30 years as a member. At the time he said he was resigning to protest against the fact that the party had distanced itself from the ideals of its founder Juan Bosch. Yermenos now explains that he had been watching what he describes as the party's "progressive degeneration". He said that the deciding moment came when he was told he too would receive a check as a party leader.
In his commentary, he recalls the evening when a party member showed up with a list of party Base Committee members who were not working in government, and announced that as of the 30th, they would be assigned a check as a reward for their party membership. His own check was in that allotment.
See http://www.elnacional.com.do/article.aspx?id=41654
In today's Diario Libre editorial, newspaper executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada writes that the problem is how to put an end to this if here poverty has been perpetuated as a way of keeping people dependent on gifts; a bag of food, a little box of foodstuffs or the small check. This is an age-old, deep-rooted problem. Pedro Francisco Bono, a noted 19th century statesman wrote in the 1880s: "That 'blue' of today, for example, who is thrown out of a job or the pension he is enjoying, will be 'red' tomorrow, and that 'red' of yesterday, to whom they give said job or pension, at once becomes 'blue'. (Opinions of a Dominican, 13 January 1884). Tejada ends by saying that politics based on money will not permit us to get out of the hole we're in.
Marino Zapete tells the story of the Base Committee allocations in a blog entry, "Cuantas Botellas, Profesor" at www.jarabedemarino.blogspot.com
The Supreme Court is waiting for the defense brief on the notorious Sun Land case and the missing US$130 million. The head of the Office of Supervising Engineers for State Sponsored Public Works, Felix Bautista, was supposed to file his defense brief within 15 days. The complaint by the PRD party is requesting that the court declare the contract null and void. Lower court magistrate Raman Berroa Hiciano approved the legal status of the PRD, as a political entity, to file suit. The magistrate denied the state's claim that the party did not have the legal status to file a suit.
While most of the activity for the Easter holidays take place at the vacation destinations, as with modern times, Santo Domingo's Colonial City is where those that are religiously inclined can partake in the original spirit of Easter. On Thursday, 20 March, at 7pm, there will be Holy Thursday special mass at the Cathedral and the Nuestra Senora del Carmen and Santa Barbara churches in the Colonial City. At this Chrism Mass, the leading priests will bless the Oil of Chrism used for Baptism and Confirmation. At the masses, the traditional washing of the feet of priests by their superiors will take place, to symbolize Christ's washing the feet of his Apostles, the first priests. There is also the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by the people during the night, whereby Catholics commemorate the disciples stayed with Jesus during his agony on the Mount of Olives before the betrayal by Judas. Altars are specially prepared for the occasion.
On Good Friday, at 3pm, the Catholic priests hierarchy gather for the Sermon of the Seven Words that takes place at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. The Catholic Church then commemorates the Easter Vigil followed by Resurrection mass on Sunday.
Dominican boxer Juan Carlos Payano defeated Cuban contender Andry Laffita to win the gold medal in the Americas Olympic Qualifier event that took place 12-18 March in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. This is the second time the Dominican flyweight defeats his formidable contender. The first time was in February, during the Independence Cup held in Santiago de los Caballeros, in the DR. The previous evening, Payano had defeated Jose Saint, and qualified for the Beijing Olympics.
Cuban boxers dominated the event, with nine fighters claiming one of the 23 Olympic spots on offer at the Trinidad Events.
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