Pensioners demand payment of 45 year old debt

PANAMA  jubilados, (retirees and pensioners) took to the streets in   Los Santos and Bocas del  Toro on Monday Oct, 31 calling on President Juan Carlos Varela  to sanction payments due 45 years ago.

The demonstrators are asking Varela to sanction the law that was recently approved by the National Assembly to pay 13th month payments owed to workers from 1972 to 1983.

“This debt is not of a political party, but of the state,” said Claudio Escalona, of the National Coordinating Committee of Retirees and Pensioner of Los Santos.

Escalona said that the group rejects completely the position taken by Minister of Economy and Finance Dulcidio De La Guardia.

“We cannot accept that the minister is attacking the integrity of retirees,” said Escalona, who was reacting to the minister’s position that the law be vetoed by the president.

According to De La Guardia, an analysis by the ministry found the payments to be “unconstitutional.” But Escalona stressed that they have waited 45 years to receive this money.

Ismael Sáez, another of the protesters, said that more demonstrations will be held if the law is not signed.