Assembly a platform for mud-slinging

PANAMA’S National Assembly turned into a verbal mud-slinging platform for deputies of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). On Wednesday, March 29 Their heated rhetoric came during second reading of Bill 514, which seeks to ensure that crimes related to corruption do not lapse.

It was aimed at broad spectrum including representatives of Civil Society, who visited the Assembly to support the bill and at President Juan Carlos Varela, currently on an overseas trip.

La Prensa reports: “Hot speeches of more than 30 minutes, attacks on the proponents of the initiative, accusations against the current government, economic sectors of the country and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The first off the mark was Jaime Pedrol the PRD deputy from the Ngäbe Buglé comarca, who opined that the “real corrupt people are neck and necktie and not politicians…in prisons right now.”

Rage
Crispiano Adames, PRD, followed saying that all crimes must have a time parameter to be investigated. “The imprescriptibility as expressed in this bill constitutes a sword of Damocles, as a suspicious test over time. We must analyze the reality that accompanies us. In a country where there is a judicial system that is not independent, in a country with a Constitution that establishes abysmal presidentialism and where there is selective justice.”

Obfuscated, with rage, with anger, says La Prensa he launched darts at Annette Planells, leader of the Independent Movement (Movin), one of the promoters of the proposal. “You speak in the media with a passionate intelligence, criticizing the deputies without knowing them, without knowing their trajectory and squandering (sic) their lives. Movin has machineries in the Social Security Fund, upsetting prices, “he said.

Varela accused
The deputy and general secretary of the PRD Pedro Miguel González did not refer to Bill 514 but used the 45 minutes granted by the President of the Assembly to attack President Varela for his alleged links to bribes paid by Odebrecht.

“Varela and his party were linked to the Odebrecht scandal,” said the deputy, who, accused the Public Ministry of applying selective justice in this investigation,  and not to investigate the contributions received by the Panameñista Party between 2010 and 2013 on behalf of the construction company.

“If Odebrecht gave bribes to politicians in the last administration, who is taking the money from the Panamanian people in the Varela period, which has continued to hire these corrupt companies?” He asked.

The deputy concluded his speech by noting that he will take advantage of Bill 514 to include proposals that were left out when the Law on Public Procurement was discussed.