Listen to "Le Patua" by Damiron, a piano master of the Dominican style of merengue, and compare with Issa El Saieh's "La Sirene La Baleine." I'm not sure who recorded what first, but it seems unlikely that two artists active during the same era (roughly) would record songs with the same melodies without knowing it. Indeed, Damiron's "Le Patua" even hints at Haitian influences (patua is the language of papa, of mama, etc.) while "La Sirene" reflects Vodouesque and folkloric influences in Saieh's jazzy orchestrated style. Regardless of who influenced who, it's quite clear that some of the merengue artists of the Dominican Republic were listening to Haitian orchestras and Haitian mereng.
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