OPINION: Corruption by any other name

When we all believed that the disaster that was the National Assistance  Program (PAN) had disappeared, it turns out that their abhorrent and disgusting practices were transferred to other government agencies to satisfy the voracious appetite of deputies lacking in humanity, empathy, and commiseration.

The government of Juan Carlos Varela fueled the greed of these politicians with money from a town that he boasts of representing. The same thing happened when the Executive approved tens of millions of dollars for donations and payrolls in the National Assembly, which turned out to be a fraud, only a means to extract –

with the appearance of legality – the millions that Panamanians have to hand over to the Treasury.  If the president appears  oblivious to the corruption that spreads  among many of these deputies, perhaps it is worth remembering that his government was the one that approved giving  them those funds, in exchange for a pact of governability that was translated into  a license to ruin the country and to make several politicians rich while he turned his face. The PAN never died, perhaps it was in intensive care, but this government revived it and today it is as alive and as rosy as in its best days, only in other offices, with other faces, but with the same money, the same victims and the hypocrisy of always: “The people first” [Varela’s campaign slogan] – LA PRENSA, Nov. 7