OFF THE CUFF: Boats named without consent
FOUR of the six used patrol boats donated by Italy to Panama as part of a deal to secure a major contract for Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica were named on the orders of then president Ricardo Martinelli after the four presidents who preceded him.
Two of them, Ernesto Perez Balladares, and Martin Torrijos, declined the ”honor” but Martinelli went ahead with the christening without their consent.
Neither turned up for the official ceremony in Rodman on May 30 2012.
Mireya Moscoso sent a representative and former first lady Ana Mae Diaz de Endara, widow of former President Guillermo Endara Galimany was there to murmur platitudes.
Undeterred Martinelli went ahead with the ceremony, boasting that the six promised launches had a value of $80 million.
The no-show ex-presidents still have their names on the sterns of two vessels that are, like Martinelli, currently out of action..