News
Wednesday 16th April 2025.
April 15, 2025
With five votes against and two in favor, the Government Commission of the National Assembly rejected this Tuesday, April 15, the controversial bill seeking to grant amnesty to former presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, implicated in emblematic corruption cases such as New Business, Blue Apple, and Odebrecht.
The committee’s chairman, Luis Eduardo Camacho, of the Realizando Metas (RM) party, led the discussion and vote amid a tense and expectant atmosphere.
“Article number one, modified: those in favor, raise your hand,” said Camacho, who then requested the outcome from the committee secretary. Upon confirming the rejection of the first article, the president announced that, according to the legal team’s criteria, the rest of the bill was automatically rejected.
“This will be reflected in the report, in the minutes, and there’s no need to put the rest of the articles to a vote,” he added.
Camacho, who was one of the signatories of the legislative proposal, announced that he will present a minority report to the full Assembly. “You know, because I was more or less familiar with the results, I will later submit this report and a minority report to the full Assembly,” he said before adjourning the session. The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m., after thanking the representatives and attendees for their participation.
The five votes against the bill came from Manuel Cheng and Roberto Zúñiga, both representatives from the Vamos coalition, as well as José Pérez Barboni, from the Another Way Movement (MOCA). They were joined by alternate representatives Marta de Sandoya, representing Crispiano Adames, and Ana María Poveda, alternate for Didiano Pinilla, a representative from the Democratic Change party. This last vote generated particular attention, as Pinilla had supported the proposal with his signature just a week earlier.
The only two votes in favor were those of Camacho and Ariel Vallarino, both members of RM and close to former President Martinelli.
The Comptroller General of the Republic, Anel Bolo Flores , reported this Tuesday that officials from the Comptroller General’s Office who went to the National Assembly on Monday to deliver checks were subjected to verbal abuse, shoving, threats, and intimidation.
Flores directly blamed Assembly President Dana Castañeda for fostering a hostile environment: “She was the one who harangued the people. What happened there is not worthy of a National Assembly.”
“People showed up yesterday who had never been seen there before. There were a lot of people who came out to harangue and hadn’t set foot in the National Assembly in years, but who were charging by ACH,” commented the comptroller, who added that the parking lots were all occupied by people who had never been there. “The cars didn’t fit inside the building,” he emphasized in a statement to TVN Channel 2 .
The comptroller insisted that what happened was a “gangster cabal” inside, referring to the legislature.
According to Flores, the Comptroller’s Office has not received Castañeda’s cooperation, even though they began auditing the Legislative Branch more than three weeks ago.
“Since she took office, that woman has appointed 721 additional officials. And if you ask any of the 61 new deputies, they have no appointments. Who did she appoint? Her own people. That’s what they don’t want anyone to find out: the bottles she has.”
Flores was emphatic in warning that these “bottles”—that is, people who get paid without working—will be detected and punished: “I will find them and I will prosecute them.”
He also announced that the Comptroller’s Office already has payrolls containing the names of deputies and officials with salaries ranging between $300,000 and $400,000. This information, he said, will be published on the institution’s website to ensure public access.
He also spoke of “family clans” and “family-based families.”
Regarding the legislative strike, Flores made his position clear: “If you don’t work, you won’t get paid.”
Panamanian doctor Rolando Chin reached an 18-month prison sentence as part of the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation into a fraud scheme targeting U.S. war veterans.
The investigation, which was initiated following a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, revealed a complex network of fraud involving health insurance claims filed by Panamanian pharmacies and doctors through the Doctors Abroad Program, which serves U.S. war veterans.
In 2023, the Public Ministry ordered the arrest of doctors Walter Kravcio and Javier Alvarado in this case, and continues the investigation into another group of individuals.
Kravcio, Alvarado, and some of their businesses and companies are on the list of 36 medical providers in Panama that have been suspended from the VA program for alleged fraud against U.S. veterans.
The agreement reached by Chin involves a restitution process with the United States, while Panamanian prosecutors move forward with the investigation against those allegedly responsible for perpetrating the fraud.
In a press conference on April 7, Comptroller Anel “Bolo” Flores revealed that between 1997 and 2014, Panama Ports Company (PPC) moved 30 million TEUs (containers) and earned $698 million in net profit , equivalent to $23 per container movement .
Starting in 2015, that changed. That year, the companies Serviestiba, SA and Maniobras y Estiba Portuaria, SA were established , which offer stevedoring, unstevedoring, container counting and port labor services in Balboa and Cristóbal, both ports granted to PPC through Contract Law No. 5 of January 16, 1997.
Now, instead of $23 per container, PPC earns $11.5. Therefore, it can be concluded that the profits of PPC, a company in which the State holds 10% of the shares, have fallen. The port company, however, applauds this and maintains that hiring these service providers has represented “significant savings” over the past 10 years.
The problem is that these supplier companies do not have a concession contract with the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) . They have a direct relationship with PPC, so they rely on Contract Law No. 5, which in clause 2.10, point “u,” grants the port authority the power to “subcontract all of its rights and activities granted through this concession contract, without the need for state approval.”
In this way, they operate within Balboa and Cristóbal and generate revenue. The problem is that—according to the comptroller—they don’t pay taxes. The state doesn’t receive a single cent for the services they are providing on land and property that belong to the nation.
“They’re ghosts who exist there, they operate, they collect money… but no one knows why they’re there. According to them [PPC], they don’t know who they are, but they operate within their premises,” Flores said.
But where do these companies come from? Who runs them?
Serviestiba, SA and Maniobras y Estiba Portuaria, SA have much more in common than the fact that they share the PPC concession. Both were registered in the Public Registry on the same date (May 20, 2015), have the same resident agent (lawyer and former PRD congressman Raúl Eugenio Rodríguez Arauz), and share a director named Reinaldo Franco, who appears as the prosecutor in both.
Furthermore, both companies share the same business address: Ancón district, Arnulfo Arias Madrid Avenue, Puerto de Balboa, building 39, floor 1A, which corresponds to the PPC concession area.
The president and legal representative of Serviestiba is Raúl Alejandro Rodríguez Virzi , son of Raúl Rodríguez Arauz. Luis Jurado González and Bienvenido Ábrego García are listed as treasurer and secretary, respectively. In the records of operating licenses granted by the AMP, Gicela Rachel de Kinkead appears as Serviestiba’s representative.
Meanwhile, in Port Maneuvers and Stevedoring, the names of Raquilda Mercedes Pérez, Patsy Ortiz Álvarez, and Neila Castrellón Coronel are listed as president, treasurer, and secretary, respectively. Pérez also serves as the legal representative.
Although Alejandro Kouruklis , PPC’s legal advisor, told La Prensa that the relationship with these service providers is “totally commercial” and that he doesn’t know who the ultimate beneficiaries are, Serviestiba offers its staff the opportunity to work “at Hutchison Ports,” PPC’s parent company. The only requirement appears to be submitting to “due selection processes,” according to a message posted on the @serviestibasa Instagram account .
And apparently, it also works the other way around: PPC workers have joined Serviestiba.
For example, on December 9, 2015, a “management substitution” was announced: a group of workers was “transferred” from PPC to Serviestiba, which became the new “employer.” The measure was not well received by the affected workers, who even filed complaints with the Ministry of Labor and Workforce Development (Mitradel) , but the situation did not change.
Currently, Serviestiba would have even more staff than PPC: the supplier company, according to former congressman Rodríguez, has a workforce of 2,000 people, while the port company employs around 1,200 people, Kouruklis indicated.
Kouruklis added that staff turnover is a common practice and indicated that this also occurs with Port Maneuvers and Stevedoring and other companies operating in the terminals.
La Prensa asked Rodríguez Arauz who requested the incorporation of these companies. He declined to answer. He simply stated that he acted on instructions from a client.
“The firm provides legal services to various clients, including those who requested that I establish and serve as resident agent for these two companies,” he emphasized.
A source linked to the AMP referred to Serviestiba as ” a satellite company of PPC used to outsource its services , a practice known to all administrations.” He said that the AMP has attempted to inspect the operations of both, but “the company [PPC] avoided oversight and obtained authorization to continue this situation.”
Now Comptroller Flores wants to find out. He has already said that the General Directorate of Revenue (DGI) is conducting audits of these subcontracted companies, since they do not appear as active taxpayers nor do they pay taxes on their operations.
Flores also indicated that the Comptroller’s Office was only able to verify $690 million of investment by PPC, despite the fact that the contract required a minimum investment of $1 billion to validate the automatic renewal of the concession granted in 2021. This difference represents a possible loss of more than $300 million for the State .
Rodríguez Arauz stated that Serviestiba y Maniobras and Estiba Portuaria have resolutions issued by the DGI in 2015 and 2017, which recognize the application of the tax incentives granted to PPC in Concession Contract No. 5 of 1997.
When asked about the specific amount of these tax benefits, he responded that he could not provide that information because it was an accounting matter.
Regarding the comptroller’s allegations, who described both companies as “ghost” companies operating within PPC, Rodríguez categorically rejected them, asserting that they are “inaccurate statements.”
“I don’t know if it’s due to confusion or ignorance of the legal provisions,” he said.
For his part, Kouruklis indicated that they have not received any notification from the Public Prosecutor’s Office. However, he confirmed that DGI auditors are conducting an audit of PPC, although the results are not yet known.
The Comptroller’s Office will file criminal charges in the coming days against the members of the AMP board of directors who extended the validity of Contract Law No. 5 until 2047, as well as against PPC executives, for operating an exploitation model that—according to Flores—has disproportionately favored private interests to the detriment of the country.