Calls for quick action, including Martinelli follow PAN confession

THE LAWYER of Rafael Guardia Jaen, the former Director of PAN, who on Friday Jan 23 confessed to the crimes of embezzlement, and gave prosecutors the names of a dozen others, in government and business, involved in multi-million dollar scams spent the night in the Judicial Investigation Center after his lawyer said his client has received death, and asked for protection.

 He was taken back to La Gran Joya prison under heavy police security on Saturday morning, reports La Prensa.
Guard contributed at least a dozen names of people associated with this crime. His lawyer, Victor Orobio, said his client has received threats against his life, so he asked the prosecutor for protection.
The Martinelli government official promised the prosecutor to return the resources that he obtained profited when he headed the PAN (2012-2014).
The prosecution, led by Tania Sterling, has seized so far, at least $ 8 million in bank accounts and properties in Panama and abroad. To this should be added a number of additional assets that the accused in his statement mentioned yesterday, including nine apartments.
Meanwhile, many civil society leaders called for the Public Ministry (MP) to continue the pace of research to call to justice all those who have been mentioned in this and other cases.
Former Supreme Court of Judge (CSJ) Edgardo Molino Mola said that once the confession of the former director of the PAN was obtained, the MP must step on the accelerator in its research of cost overruns in contracts
Molino Mola said that now anticorruption prosecutors have to raid all those identified by Guardia Jaén
Ex-Supreme Court Judge Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, noted that although the law allows individuals who cooperate with the law may have some mitigation in their sentences, this does not imply that they are free from responsibility reports La Prensa.
According to the ex-judge still “there is plenty to uncover ” to determine levels of participation in, complicity and responsibility of others in the mismanagement scandals of the past administration.
“We have a lot of confidence in the system and that means we must be alert. However that does not mean you have to intervene in the work of the MP “. The important thing is that to recover ill-gotten money,” she said.
Annette Planells, member of the Independent Movement (Movin), expressed confidence that the Attorney General’s Office will act and handle all cases in order to allow justice to descend on those who squandered public funds.
“I think we’re just beginning […] and it may continue with more cases appearing in other institutions.”
Planells also warned that corruption cannot be eradicated selectively. “The Harder They Come the Harder they Fall” should be the motto of the Office and all Panamanians”.
She called the necessary space and financial resources to be provided is provided to the Public Ministry so that it can continue its work. And “dismantle the web of corruption” that penetrated all public affairs.
Carlos Pérez Herrera, secretary general of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, said that each of the persons who are mentioned by Guardia Jaén must be called by the authorities to be accountable. “We must understand that the government is not an ark, but manages the funds of all citizens,” he said.
The lawyer and constitutionalist Miguel Antonio Bernal went further: “among the people to whom the anticorruption prosecutors must necessarily call unabashedly, is Mr. Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal”.
According to Bernal, in this case the crime of corruption it is clearly proven because the main person involved has finally decided to collaborate with justice. “Justice must act immediately, without any delay for the sake of social healing,” he said.
He also said that citizens must be proactive to prevent impunity in this or any other process. Bernal said that on Thursday January 29 there will be a protest march demanding justice and prison for the corrupt. The march will leave at 4:00 pm from the Carmelite church in Via Espana, and will move to the Parque Porras square on Avenida Peru.