Friday
Friday 19th July 2024.
July 18, 2024
The first of the 15 permanent committees of the National Assembly was installed : Economy and Finance. The process took place on Thursday, July 18, in the auditorium of the Justo Arosemena Palace.
This commission is made up of the following deputies: Ronald De Gracia, Victor Castillo , from Realizing Goals (RM); Arquesio Arias, Benicio Robinson , from the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD); Eduardo Gaitan, Jorge Bloise , from Vamos; Manuel Cohen , from Democratic Change (CD); Francisco Brea , from the Panameñista Party, and Patsy Lee , from the Popular Party (PP).
The president of the National Assembly, Dana Castañeda , was in charge of swearing them in. Victor Castillo , from RM, nominated his fellow party member Ronald De Gracia . Jorge Bloise, from Vamos, proposed his colleague Eduardo Gaitán for that position.
However, De Gracia won with five votes. He was supported by: Brea, Robinson, De Gracia, Castillo, Arias and Cohen .Gaitán, for his part, had the votes of Bloise and Lee.Manuel Cohen is the vice president and Víctor Castillo was chosen as secretary.
Article 47 of the Organic Regulations of the Internal Regime of the Assembly establishes that the permanent commissions are the entities in charge of presenting bills and giving them the first debate, as well as studying, debating, voting and ruling on those presented by themselves and other competent authorities.
The controversial financial aid granted by the Institute for the Training and Utilization of Natural Resources (Ifarhu) will be converted into loans.
The above was announced by the president, José Raúl Mulino , on Thursday, July 18. The president stressed that they have begun an analysis process so that these economic aids, questioned during the previous administration, become debts with Ifarhu by each of the beneficiaries.
“They will become debts to Ifarhu on the part of each of the beneficiaries so that they pay,” said the president during a press conference that he will now hold every Thursday to inform the country about the progress of his government.
According to Mulino, scholarships will not be eliminated, and anyone with good grades will receive this type of financial aid from the State.
The President’s statements come after Resolution No. 320-2024-540 of July 17, 2024 was published in the Official Gazette.
This decision repeals Resolution No. 320-2021-522 of August 3, 2021, which allowed the director of Ifarhu to declare as confidential data “the Committee Resolutions and Minutes of the National Council of Ifarhu, as well as all information handled by the institution, by reason of the granting of any of the loans it grants, in which personal data is included.”
This comes after the scandal and growing public outrage over the discretionary disbursement of millions of dollars during the previous administration in the controversial economic aid program.
A database revealed by La Prensa details that 2,144 people benefited from the aid, between July 7, 2019 and May 24, 2023. The amount disbursed was $141.6 million.
These figures only represent part of the full picture, as the beneficiaries of another 2,759 disbursements are unknown.
In addition, information provided by Ifarhu to Antai shows that between January and April of this year, $10.7 million have been paid in 636 economic aids.
The President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, welcomed the fact that Costa Rica wants to sign an agreement similar to the one signed by Panama with the United States on migration.
“I am very pleased that Costa Rica wants to sign a similar agreement with the United States. I discussed this with President Chaves [Rodrigo Chaves of Costa Rica] when he was in Panama and it is very important, since these are our two borders,” Mulino said in his first weekly discussion held this Thursday, July 18, 2024.
“If all three, Costa Rica, Colombia and the United States, work on a regional agreement, that will be alleviated,” said Mulino, referring to the migration crisis in Darien
On July 1, Panama and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding that promotes collaboration in migration management, including repatriation support.
Regarding the latter, Mulino said that he hopes to have the announcement “soon” of the first air repatriation that will be carried out through our territory.
For the moment, he stressed that the measures implemented during his administration have led to a decrease in the transit of migrants through Darien. As he announced during the discussion, up to June, some 31,049 migrants had passed through that area, while so far in July the figure is 11,386.
“I think that putting up the fence and reducing traffic to one direction has helped a lot, as well as the intense 24/7 patrols that we have,” said the Panamanian president.
It should be noted that the National Border Service fenced off some 4.7 kilometers on the border with Colombia , where some five clandestine crossings had been detected that organized crime used as a tool to move through the Darien jungle.
The director of Senafront, Jorge Gobea, has said that the intention of this fence is to channel this flow, not to interrupt the migratory movement, but by being able to take the migrants through a single place, a safer movement is guaranteed.
“We have to look after them [the migrants] until we have to resolve this problem, which we hope will be soon,” said President Mulino on Thursday.
In less than a month, the First Superior Court of Criminal Cases did not admit two appeals for constitutional guarantees filed by former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) against the Second Liquidator of Criminal Cases Judge, Baloisa Marquínez .
The first of the rulings was announced through edict No. 24 -1879 on April 10. Under the report of Judge Yarisel Franco, the ruling establishes that an amparo of guarantees was not admitted against mixed sentence No. 02 of July 1, 2023, in which a sentence of 128 months in prison was applied to Martinelli and a fine of $19.2 million for the crime of money laundering in the New Business case (purchase of Editora Panamá América -Epasa- with public funds).
Then, on Wednesday, July 17, the First Court of Justice, under the leadership of Judge Carlos Pizarro, did not admit an appeal for constitutional guarantees against Judge Marquínez.
The information is contained in edict No. 2027, which details that the constitutional guarantees protection filed by Carlos Carrillo, representing Martinelli, is rejected.
The Court and the First Superior Court have granted some 16 requests for protection of guarantees presented (unsuccessfully) by the defense of former President Martinelli in the New Business case .
The former president, whose sentence has been finalized, has been seeking asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama since February 7, after alleging alleged political persecution. Five days earlier, the SCJ had refused to admit an appeal that would have prevented him from going to prison.
A group of former officials of the Arraiján Mayor’s Office broke into the Municipal Council session of that district, in Panama Oeste, on Thursday morning, July 18, to protest against the decision of Mayor Stefany Peñalba to reduce the payroll of the commune she leads.
With a banner in hand reading “We were not bottlenecks, we always fulfilled our schedules and duties ,” the protesters demanded payment of their last fortnight’s pay and their benefits.
They explained that among those dismissed were secretaries, drivers, cleaners, auditors, and department heads.
Mayor Peñalba described the protest as a “media show” and said she expected these reactions because this group of people would be linked to the previous administration, which is accused of causing a mess in the municipality’s finances.
“We are cleaning the house,” he said in an interview on TVN .
A few days ago, Peñalba reported that he had dismissed nearly 150 people.
After taking office at the beginning of July, the mayor said that the Municipality of Arraiján has a debt of approximately 10 million dollars, including insurance and basic services.
The Panamanian government reiterated this Thursday, July 18, that in order to negotiate with First Quantum , with the creditors and bankers of the Cobre Panama project, all lawsuits and international arbitration proceedings initiated against the country for the closure of mining activity will have to be suspended.
This was stated by the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino , in the first conversation with the media, admitting that Panama cannot do anything to stop the lawsuits filed by different shareholders of the Cobre Panamá project, but neither does it intend to negotiate under the current circumstances.
“In order for them to sit down with government representatives to talk with them [First Quantum], with creditors, with bankers or all of them together, all of those processes have to be suspended. Panama is not going to sit down with a gun to its head to solve any problem. The Supreme Court struck down that contract, I cannot do anything against a resolution of the Court,” he said.
The most recent claim was by the Franco-Nevada Corporation of Canada, which formalized the arbitration claim against the Panamanian State for the closure of the Cobre Panama project, which was operated by Minera Panama, a subsidiary of the also Canadian First Quantum.
“We had the pleasure of closing a mine that represented 5% of the GDP and a huge amount of money invested there, which is not only First Quantum’s money, but the money of the entire world. And we hope for reactions, this is just the beginning.”
The president described the contract between the State and First Quantum, which was annulled by the SCJ as unconstitutional in November 2023, as atrocious.
He clarified that he has not had formal meetings with any representative of the mining company, although he admitted that some officials have been authorized to speak and learn about the issue.
“We are the owners of the mine as a State that grants a concession and we have a problem: the national banks are asking for the mine to be reopened and I understand them because there are many millions of dollars blocked from companies that financed projects, investments and contracts with the mine… From one day to the next they were left hanging, but that is a problem that I believe we will not address before next Panamanian summer,” said the president.
Mulino said the case was referred to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, where a department was set up that is following up and attending the various hearings of the lawsuits against the State.
“Not only First Quantum, the Panamanian State has huge demands from many other companies and sectors that are complaining and it is our duty to defend ourselves.”
In addition to suspending mining activity, Panama also enacted a mining moratorium law that prohibits the granting of new permits and concessions for open-pit exploration and exploitation.
The President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino , reiterated this Thursday, July 18, that the economic situation of the country is “critical.” In light of this, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Felipe Chapman, is conducting a review of the finances, the president stressed.
Mulino also announced that there will be a “containment of public spending”, specifically in terms of operating expenses (not investments). The payroll is being reduced and some 400 cars that were rented by different state institutions will be returned, he mentioned.
“They played with and abused public property in a way never seen before,” he said.
Mulino’s statements were made this Thursday during the first weekly discussion, held at the Amphitheatre of the Presidency of the Republic.