Archive for April, 2019
The economists at the Santo Domingo Technological Institute (INTEC) do not see a rosy future for the pension fund administrators (AFPs) and their customers. In their opinion, these fund administrators that at present enjoy high profits risk bankruptcy because the bulk of the workers’ savings are invested in government bonds that are threatened by the growing national debt.
“Trying to read the future is like reading a crystal ball, but this is a possibility that we have to consider,” said Carlos Ramos of INTEC. He said if oil prices were to shoot up, this could force the government to subsidize the electric sector, and this could cripple the pension funds. Ramos, together with well-known economist Pavel Isa Contreras, argued for a Fiscal Pact that would focus on the relocation of the current tax structure in order to guarantee continued economic growth.
A recent Juan Bosch Foundation study shows at present the situation is already bleak for pension plan holders.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Apr 8, 2019
On Friday, 5 April 2019, the Constitutional Court struck down disposition No. 6 of Art. 44 in the recently passed Political Parties Law 33-18, which had criminalized negative comments regarding politicians in social media. The sentence is TC-01-2018-0043.
Lawyers Namphi Rodríguez and Héctor Herrera Cabral had disputed the disposition in the Constitutional Court. The disposition had read: “The dissemination of negative messages through social networks that tarnish the image of candidates will be sanctioned according to articles 21 and 22 of Law No.53-07, on Crimes and High Technology Crimes.”
Rodríguez commented after the higher court decision was announced that the Political Parties Law disposition sought to inhibit citizens from reporting on administrative corruption. He said he is waiting to read the full sentence, but suggested it is a decision “that strengthens the constitutional state against a draconian law of parties that ignores free expression in social media as they ignore other rights such as freedom of association and the rights of members of the political parties.”
The spokesman for the PLD, Gustavo Sánchez, who had defended the restriction to freedom of speech by the law, now says that the measure sought to limit criticism by people to those matters that could be proven in a court. But he says the Constitutional Court ruling needs to be respected.
Rodríguez said there are several other gag laws, including the recently passed Electoral Regime Law 15-19, which penalizes with up to 10 years in jail for defamation, a crime that would otherwise only receive six months in Freedom of Speech Law 6132 that dates back to 1962. He said he is waiting to read the full Constitutional Court opinion. He said that Constitutional Court ruling TC0075-16 had already established that there would be no jail sentence when politicians or government officers are involved.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Apr 8, 2019
On Wednesday, 3 April 2019, Carlos Silver completed for a second time what he believed would be enough hours of consecutive singing to break the previous Guinness record set by Indian Sunil Waghmare. He had sung consecutively from Friday, 29 March to Wednesday, 3 April. The bad news, though, is that the record failed to be certified by Guinness. Mexican Carlos Tapia Rojas, representative of Guinness for the Dominican Republic, said that Silver made several pauses of more than the allowed 30 seconds.
Silver had performed for 106 continuous hours at the Parque Eugenio María de Hostos, off the Malecón in Santo Domingo. He reached the record by singing around 5,000 songs from Friday at noon until Wednesday at 11am. His last songs were: “Cómo duele”, “Mucho corazón”, “Devuélveme el amor” y “Con el viento a tu favor.”
To set the record, had Silver worked from inside a glass box where he was accompanied by medics and his relatives who would decide if he had to stop.
At the end of the feat, he told the public: “I risked my life taking on this challenge. I told my mother if I die, bury me with a smile.”
After reaching the 106 hours of continuous singing, Silver was taken to the Clínica Cruz Jiminián for recovery.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Apr 8, 2019
A commission from Save the Children visited the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Radhames Camacho, to request the exclusion of child marriage from the Civil Code. Currently, the Civil Code sets the minimum age for boys to legally marry is 18 and for girls 15. Save the Children argues that this brings about multiple negative consequences, mainly for the girls.
Camacho expressed his support for the initiative. “That’s a fight that has to be fought and it is up to us to do so now that we have the responsibility to direct the work of the Chamber,” he said.
Opposition Senator Jose Ignacio Paliza (PRM-Puerto Plata) backed the request by Save the Children and said it would be a way for government policy to preserve the correct development of children in the country.
Save the Children says that around 50,000 persons have signed a petition online for the National Congress to ban child marriage in the Dominican Republic. The campaign has run on change.org and seeks to create an awareness of the harm of child marriage.
According to the Central Electoral Board (JCE), which manages the civil registry, in the past six years (2012-2017) there were 1,717 registered child marriages and in 98 % of the cases, the female spouse was a minor.
A recent study presented by Plan International alerted on forced child marriage in the Dominican Republic. The Enhogar 2014 poll revealed that 12.5% of Dominicans ages 20 to 49 were married or joined with spouses before they were 15 years old, and 37% before they were 18 years old. Local statistics also reveal that one of five teenage girls aged 15 to 19 years is married or living with a man 10 years older. Of the 10 children married with adults at the time of the poll, seven had been pregnant at the time of the marriage.
Source: DR1, Metrord
Apr 8, 2019
On Monday, 1 April 2019, the prosecution in the ‘Air Cocaine’ case asked for sentences between four and 25 years against nine of the accused. For the French pilots Bruno Odos and Pascal Fauret, seven years was requested.
Marc Gouton, the prosecutor, also asked for the prohibition of all activities related to the aviation industry for the pilots, who were arrested in 2013 in the Dominican Republic for piloting a plane laden with 700 kilos of cocaine. The Dominican anti-drug agency confiscated the drugs at Punta Cana airport. They were inside the plane in 26 suitcases ready to take off for La Môle, near Saint-Tropez, on the southern coast of France.
Two weeks later, the two pilots and two passengers, Nicolas Pisapia and Alain Castany. were told to serve a year preventive custody and were then condemned to 20 years in jail in the Dominican Republic for drug trafficking.
However, in October 2015, the pilots, under house arrest awaiting their appeal, escaped and returned to France.
The highest penalty, that of 25 years, is requested for Ali Bouchareb, who is a known to be reoffending drug dealer, 12 years for the organizer of the flight, Frank Colin, and seven years for a colleague and head of the pilots, Fabrice Alcaud and Pierre-Marc Dreyfus.
The prosecution also asked for four years in jail for the custom’s accomplice, François-Xavier Manchet, who assisted at the airport in France where there were very lax security measures.
Fauret and Odos have always maintained they knew nothing about the drugs, but the prosecution in France state that they must have known what they were carrying.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Apr 8, 2019
Health authorities have reported 106 new cases of dengue in a week, which means there have been 866 cases so far this year. These figures show an increase of 294% over the same period last year. Of the total dengue cases this year, 389 have been during the last four weeks.
The Ministry of Public Health bulletin reported last week there were 13 cases of malaria confirmed in seven men and six women between the ages of 14 and 49, as compared to eight cases in the same period last year.
However, cholera has decreased, with nine cases at this point last year but only two cases reported so far this year, and leptospirosis is down by half, with 62 cases this year compared to 156 last year.
Source: DR1, Almomento
Apr 8, 2019
According to new data from hotel analytics firm STR, the Dominican Republic is continuing a full-fledged hotel development boom. The Caribbean’s most popular tourist destination has a total of 6,200 rooms in construction right now, or 8.7 percent of its existing hotel supply, reports Caribbean Journal.
That is the largest number of rooms under construction of any Caribbean destination, followed by Cuba, which has 600 rooms in construction, or 0.9 percent of its supply. That comes after the Dominican Republic saw a 6 percent growth in its hotel stock in 2018, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.
Last year’s additions increased the Dominican Republic’s hotel supply by 4,365 rooms, meaning that there are now 80,257 hotel rooms, as reported in Caribbean Journal.
Source: DR1, Caribjournal
Apr 8, 2019
TV host Milagros Germán, writer and theater director Waddys Jaquez, actor Nashla Bogaert and comedian Raymond Pozo will be the judges for the first edition of the popular international reality show that will air September to December 2019. Actor Frank Perozo has been named the host for the show.
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Source: DR1, Dominicanatienetalento
Apr 8, 2019
Spokesman for the Police, Colonel Frank Durán said the National Police ordered an investigation into findings by Amnesty International of abuses of the Police agents against sex workers. According to Amnesty International of the 97,000 102,000 sex workers, including 5,000 transgender, around 89% have suffered physical or verbal abuse by police agents.
The Police acknowledged it has two cases of complaints, one in Santiago and the other in the Colonial City in which policemen were involved and penalized according to the rulings.
In the study presented by Erika Guevara Rosa, director for the Americas for Amnesty International, she said that they interviewed 46 sex workers, of which 10 said they had been raped by policemen.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
Apr 8, 2019
Altice (Orange and Tricom) mobile customers went without services for over two days, with no phone calls and no data. With the restoration of service over the weekend, Tricom announced their customers would be compensated for the technical breakdown depending on their telecom plans.
The company explained that the fix required both local and international technicians to solve “this unusual situation.” They said that technicians from the United States and Portugal joined forces with local engineers to correct the problems that they said began with an electricity outage that impacted their equipment. The imported technicians work for Ericson, and Cisco Technology. Spokesman Rafael Pichardo, the head of Altice Technology, explained that the latest generation equipment requires very strict protocols in order to re-establish their quality service.
Some 3.6 million mobile phones are serviced by Altice Dominicana after the fusion of Orange and Tricom in 2017.
The Altice mobile collapse came after the 21 March Claro breakdown.
Source: DR1, DiarioLibre
Apr 8, 2019
