The ruling PLD party lawmaker regrets that despite that the Constitution and the law is clear on expenditure in education, the Government doesn’t respect those legal provisions, “doing so (denying 4% to education) not only breaks the law, but also the Constitution."

Interviewed by Pablo McKinney, the legislator affirmed that Dominican Republic’s future and present would be very sad "if we are not able to construct a culture of respect of the law, to submit ourselves to the compliance of the law."

Tavárez Mirabal said a lack of revenues makes it difficult for the government to comply with some laws, but noted that education must be a priority despite the international entities such as the IMF’s interest in more funds to pay the debt.

She said numerous laws must be reviewed to conciliate them with the new Constitution, but warned that that exercise will be to no avail if those provisions aren’t respected.

Dominican Watchdog Note:

This is not about 4%, because I doubt that even 10% could fix the problem! Its a much deeper social/society problem!

It would be a good idea if the top of the Dominican government and society went ahead to set a good example! As long as anti social behavior and corruption is a big part of the daily life, then those with money keep doing what they want. And those who don't have money will do anything to get them.

In most cases the law is used against the poor people who have a real problem understanding why only they have to abide, when they see that nothing happens to the high power corrupt people. However the "law abiding" issue is not only a national Dominican problem. The Dominicans have taken their crime activities to an international level. In both United States and Europe criminal activities from Dominican gangs have been exploding since 2008.

Read also: More than 20,000 criminal Dominicans has been deported from the US to DR in the last 10 years! - And that's only those who got caught in the USA. What about the rest and their activities in other countries?

A 17 year old gang leader has been killed in a shootout between rival gangs in Madrid. The shooter was also under age because the maximum sentence for underage people is only 8 years. Police have suggested that the feud may even have started between the elder generation back in the Dominican Republic, where all the gang members are from....... read more

Dominicans Don't Play (DDP) is a Dominican-American street gang started in New York in the early 1990s. They are known for primarily using machetes and knives as weapons. DDP have expanded to Miami and other American states as well as Spain......Important information from Wikipedia and links to many articles about their criminal activities

However Dominicans are also invloved in high tech cyber crimes - Dominican stole 5.7 million from Columbia University by redirecting online payments