News
Wednesday 18th October 2023.
October 17, 2023
The former director of the National Authority for Government Innovation (AIG) and candidate for deputy for the 8-2 circuit in San Miguelito , Luis Oliva, today provided his version of why fiefdoms politically controlled by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD ) receive 82.5% of the program known as Vale Digital.
In the words of Oliva, for example, in San Miguelito one in five people is PRD, so statistically speaking there is a high probability that more people will be registered for that party with these vouchers. He also recalled that in the electoral circuits with the greatest multidimensional poverty, a good part of their population is part of that political group.
“But it is not an issue that is benefiting anyone in particular. There is no politicization of the program and no one has asked me for that while I was in charge of the AIG,” said the candidate for deputy, who recalled that the PRD has more than 700,000 registered members.
Since payments for this program began in 2020 until September 2023, five specific districts have concentrated $1,826.2 in vouchers out of a total of $2,213 million.
$798.7 million have been disbursed in the district of Panama, and $298.1 million in San Miguelito, both in the province of Panama. $269.3 million was also allocated in Colón, province of Colón, while $253.5 million in Arraiján and $206.6 million in La Chorrera, in Panama Oeste.
In these localities, the five mayors are from the PRD and the majority of the deputies and township representatives are part of the ranks of this group. And despite the fact that entire provinces such as Chiriquí or Veraguas have a greater or equal population than these districts, they received fewer millions in Vale Digital.
However, Oliva stated that during his administration the program was managed with “transparency” and that thanks to technology the program could be monitored.
“You can imagine if it were manual how difficult it would be to supervise. If I were doing something wrong, you think I would publish this information. He who owes nothing fears nothing,” she concluded.
The lawyer and candidate for deputy for the Otro Camino Movement (Moca), Ernesto Cedeño, today filed a complaint with the Electoral General Prosecutor’s Office for the possible political use of the social assistance program known as Vale Digital.
“As a result of the newspaper La Prensa ‘s publication that the Vale Digital program could have been politicized, I filed a complaint for the government wing for an alleged electoral criminal offense that could have a penalty of one to three years,” he said.
Since payments for this program began in 2020 until September 2023, five specific districts have concentrated $1,826.2 in vouchers out of a total of $2,213 million.
$798.7 million have been disbursed in the district of Panama, and $298.1 million in San Miguelito, both in the province of Panama. $269.3 million was also allocated in Colón, province of Colón, while $253.5 million in Arraiján and $206.6 million in La Chorrera, in Panama Oeste.
In these localities, the five mayors are from the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the majority of the deputies and township representatives are part of the ranks of this group. And despite the fact that entire provinces such as Chiriquí or Veraguas have a greater or equal population than these districts, they received fewer millions in Vale Digital.
According to the complainant, the State’s assets must be cared for like a good father of a family.
Another of those who reacted today, Tuesday, was the independent deputy, Juan Diego Vásquez, who stressed that he knows hundreds of families in Samaria, Don Bosco, Veranillo and other communities in the Belisario Porras district in San Miguelito, but they never received support.
“They dedicated themselves to stealing when people needed support the most,” said the parliamentarian since this program was created during the covid-19 pandemic and many families were left unemployed.
The Commerce Commission of the National Assembly will resume the debate on the bill that contains the contract between the State and Minera Panamá. It will do so tomorrow, Wednesday, October 18 at 11:00 am
Deputy Roberto Ábrego, president of the aforementioned commission, reported that each deputy will give their opinion and go directly to the vote.
“The consultation stage has passed, we exhausted all consultations, now comes the first debate. Here we are not doing anything in secret, Ábrego explained this Tuesday, October 17.
The session will take place in the Titi Alvarado room and, according to the deputy, the debate will be broadcast.
Ábrego, deputy of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) , classified the contract as “the most consulted in the history of the country.”
He recalled that they gave “all the sectors, the communities, the opportunity to give their opinion, we visited the affected areas, we went to the mine, we established the criteria that each of the deputies wanted to have to vote for or against.”
Last Monday, the Minister of Commerce and Industries, Federico Alfaro, presented the document before the plenary session of the Assembly. Alfaro said that after addressing “multiple concerns,” the Government’s advisory team met in a permanent session with company representatives to discuss the changes related to the points indicated by the Assembly’s Commerce Commission.
“The Government of President Cortizo is a government that listens,” he said. He talked about some modified points, for example, that the clause that allowed the company to request airspace restrictions is eliminated.
He added that the right to request expropriation is also eliminated and it is clarified that the Ministry of Environment will supervise compliance with the environmental management plan. Also, Alfaro said, they eliminated Minera Panamá’s right to request the State to classify the identity of final beneficiaries with restricted access.
The changes mentioned by the minister are due to citizen requests. Concerns and complaints arose during the consultation period.
Meanwhile, Minister Alfaro said this Tuesday that he trusts that the debate will be resumed in the Commerce Commission.
Alfaro is of the thesis that there will always be those who oppose mining and no matter how many modifications are made to the contract, that group of people will never be in favor.
“ I respect the opinion of all those who are going to remain against it and who will make it difficult to convince them. What I am convinced of is that this contract is widely beneficial for the Panamanian State (…) ”, he argued.
However, the independent deputy and member of the Commerce Commission, Juan Diego Vásquez stated that without consulting with the commissioners, Deputy Ábrego already announced that there will be discussion. He indicated that he hopes that a methodology will be approved in which a “ broad, participatory discussion and listening to all parties ” can be established.
He considers that citizens must participate, since several clauses of the contract have been changed. “Being able to come and comment on the changes that have taken place is essential to be able to guarantee the transparency and democratization of the debate on this contract,” he added.
He pointed out that there are still issues that are still of concern. Vásquez was one of the deputies who proposed that the contract be rejected and that the Government establish a new contract. He made it clear that starting a debate in a hurry is the most
Panama remains on the list of tax havens of the European Union (EU) , from which Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands and the Marshall Islands have been excluded.
The changes are in the update of the list approved this Tuesday by the EU Member States.
The Council of the European Union agreed to add Antigua and Barbuda , Belize and Seychelles to its blacklist of tax havens.
The EU list includes countries that have not engaged in constructive dialogue with its 27 Member States on tax governance or have not fulfilled their commitments to implement the necessary reforms, which must aim to meet a set of objective criteria for good tax governance, including transparency, fair taxation and the implementation of international standards designed to prevent base erosion and profit shifting.
With the changes introduced this Tuesday, the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes continues to be made up of 16 members, which are as follows:
Anguila Antigua y Barbuda Bahama Belize Fiji Guam Palau Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands Samoa American Samoa Seychelles Panama Russia Trinidad and Tobago Vanuatu.
“The Council regrets that these jurisdictions still do not cooperate on tax matters and invites them to improve their legal framework to resolve the problems identified,” the European institution noted.
The EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions was established in December 2017 and forms part of the EU’s external tax strategy with the aim of contributing to ongoing efforts to promote good tax governance across the world.
The Commission on Credentials , Regulations, Parliamentary Ethics and Judicial Affairs of the National Assembly analyzed this Tuesday, October 17, five complaints against magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice.
The cases were contained in folders 297, 300, 301, 302 and 303.
They reviewed three complaints against the presiding magistrate of the Court, María Eugenia López, in folders 297, 302 and 303. They also examined folder 300, which referred to a complaint against magistrate Olmedo Arrocha. While in 301 six magistrates were mentioned, among them, Ángela Russo, Arrocha and López.
Last week the Credentials Commission filed several cases against magistrates, including a complaint filed by former President Ricardo Martinelli against López.
In April 2022, lawyer Alejandro Pérez, representing Martinelli, denounced López, alleging that he allegedly altered the judicial calendar to set the date of the trial that followed the former president of the Republic for the puncture case. He also accused her of “accelerating” procedural phases and ignoring stages of judicial and regulatory procedures with the intention of continuing with what he called a “persecution” against Martinelli. He requested that he be investigated for the alleged commission of crimes against the administration of justice and against public servants. However, on October 10, the deputies voted in favor of filing the complaint.
The Credentials Commission has PRD member Raúl Pineda as president. He is accompanied by deputies Roberto Ábrego, Ricardo Torres, Benicio Robinson, Sergio Gálvez, Mayín Correa, Francisco Pancho Alemán, Hugo Méndez and Gabriel Silva.
After examining each of the files, the deputies agreed that they did not have the necessary evidence to be admitted, so the complaints were filed.