Pensioners call for back payment approval

Pensioners  call for back payment approval

PANAMA retirees and pensioners held a peaceful protest  in the Amador cemetery on  Wednesday Nov 2 near the spot where President Juan Carlos Varela and his ministers were attending independence activities. They were demanding that  Varela   sign the bill that grants them 13th month payments from 1972 to 1983.

The bill was approved by the National Assembly on Oct. 25. Two days later Minister of Economy and Finance Dulcidio De La Guardia said it should be vetoed.

Protester Ray Bishop said the payments should be made because they are owed to workers and added that the retirees “will keep fighting until they are  made.”