OPINION: Justice delayed

Our judicial system is plagued with formalities that prevent – with great success, moreover – that there is real justice in Panama. The lawyers in Panama, far from litigating in substance, concentrate all their efforts on stopping the cases; present dilatory and ineffective appeals. That is, they sue the form, almost never the substance, with which, the only thing they achieve is that doubts and suspicions deepen not only in the judicial system but also in the innocence of their clients. Winning a case by delay or by prescription does not clarify whether the defendant is innocent; on the contrary, it generates a contrary perception. The Second Superior Court is sitting on a high-profile file: the case for alleged embezzlement and money laundering in the construction of phase II of the Via Brasil Corridor, the Via Domingo Díaz, and the Old Town of Panama City, in this case in which those who paid bribes confessed all the details: characters, circumstances, bribery, etc. But it has been stuck since last November in the offices of the honorable magistrates of this court, waiting for what? The prescription? What will resolve itself? Please, justices, start respecting yourself so the rest of us can do it. LA PRENSA, Apr. 26