President steps into Christmas charity bonus debate

THE $1.5 MILLION Christmas bonus for Deputies, approved by the National Assembly was not a waste of public funds, as it was in the last government administration, said Panama President, Juan Carlos Varela, on Monday December 15.

According to Varela, it was an attempt to restructure the institution by not using the figure of the controversial National Assistance Program.
Varela said the bonus was a social assistance wanted to give through Members, in the amount of $25,000.
The president of the legislature, Adolfo Valderrama, announced that, after an analysis, he chose to donate the Christmas bonus which represents a total expenditure of $ 1.5 million for the to four charities.
Varela said Monday while in the province of Colón that he respects the decision of Valderrama. However, he said that criticisms that were made about Christmas bonus image only sought to discredit the National Assembly, reports La Prensa.
Last week the Budget Committee of the Assembly approved a $ 1.5 million bond to be assigned to deputies exchangeable for food voucheres insupermarket chains.
LASTING CONSEQUENCES
The Independent Movement (Movin) considered that the Christmas bonus distributed BY deputies “is a practices exacerbated by the previous government and whose consequences we will suffer for many years.”
“We want a country where the miserable and needy cannot be used for partisan political purposes or to exalt the image of a person distributing the goods that belong to all Panamanians,” said Movin in a press release.
“Remember that the Assembly, by constitutional mandate, is made to legislate, monitor and prosecute the President and judges. “The Assembly is not organized to provide a direct response to the serious social needs, for this there are institutions within and outside the government,” says the release