MEDCOM, the broadcasting and cable company that runs the RPC and Telemetro TV networks, Panama City's Cable Onda cable system and RPC radio, is set to receive nearly 70 percent of the money that the Electoral Tribunal plans to spend on broadcasting to promote voter participation in the 2004 elections. The tribunal said it made the decisions about ad spending in broadcast and print media based upon the recommendations of a group of ad agencies, purportedly on the basis of television viewership, radio audience sizes and newspaper circulation. However, RPC-radio, owned by MEDCOM, does not attract the audiences that music stations get, yet is slated to receive more than four times the amount that any other broadcaster will get; and La Critica, the country's largest-circulation newspaper, will receive less than La Prensa. After a storm of criticism the ad agencies' cartel admitted that it has no valid statistics for viewership, listening audiences or newspaper circulations, but the Electoral Tribunal maintains that it will not be "blackmailed" into changing its decision. Television news station RCM has sued to set aside the tribunal's advertising budget.

A report by lawyers for several national business groups claims that trademark and copyright infringement runs rampant in the Panamanian economy and that our legal system does little to deter such theft. Attorney General José Antonio Sossa met with business leaders, who delivered him a copy of the report and demanded a vigorous anti-piracy enforcement campaign. Meanwhile, the United States is preparing a blacklist of countries that do not cooperate in anti-piracy efforts and may impose economic sanctions on Panama if we are included when the list is released this coming April.

Panama's Caja de Seguro Social is in serious trouble because at the moment many of the nation's businesses --- more than 12,000, according the system's published list --- find themselves unable to pay premiums due to the weak economy. Another note of urgency was added by the recent publication of an International Labor Organization study that warned that the social security system would start to have cash flow problems in 2005 and collapse by 2018 without some serious reforms. Thus President Moscoso and social security director Juan Jované are backing a plan to transfer land in the former Canal Zone to Seguro Social as a way to keep the retirement, disability and health care system solvent. The suggestion was immediately opposed by ARI director Alfredo Arias, as his agency would lose control over the assets. Arias warned that the authority "is not a gold mine." The law requires ARI to go out of business in 2005, but there are various proposals to keep the authority in operation after its legally contemplated demise.

The National Council of Organized Workers (CONATO), the nation's most important labor federation, has voted to oppose Moscoso administration proposal to use the Fiduciary Development Fund for national debt payments and certain capital improvements. The 364 delegates to CONATO's annual congress also rejected the government's suggestion to use Reverted Areas real estate to finance private sector mega-projects. Labor's basic problem with the administration's plans for the fiduciary fund created with the proceeds from the privatization sales of formerly government-owned enterprises is that the amounts set aside for low-cost housing and other projects are insufficient to carry them out. The unions believe that the payment for privately owned developments with government owned real estate would essentially be a way for politicians and influential families to grab the unsold part of the former Canal Zone. An underlying theme in labor's opposition to this government's economic proposals is the expectation that if the Moscoso administration is allowed more access to public properties like the Fiduciary Fund and the Reverted Areas, those assets will be stolen. The administration can't do much with the Fiducuary Development Fund or the Reverted Areas without the agreement of the Legislative Assembly, which is controlled by an opposition alliance. To get past the standoff between the executive and legislative branches a formal national dialogue involving representatives of the various private and public sectors has been underway for several months. CONATO is represented by Norma Cano at the talks.

Banking Superintendent Delia Cárdenas has drafted a law that would create a Panamanian bank deposit insurance scheme to protect the first $10,000 in accounts. The plan, which she hopes that the legislature will take up in the session that starts on March 1, would require banks to keep a certain percentage of the money deposited in them as cash reserves and otherwise adopt procedures that have long been common in the United States. However, Cárdenas warned that this would be no antidote for the failure of poorly run banks.

The Education Ministry says that it will not see a huge influx of students switching from private to public schools as happened last year, but also admits that hundreds of teaching posts will be vacant when the school year begins on March 11. Last year, school began with more than 60 public school buildings unusable and some 2,000 teaching posts, mostly in rural areas, unfilled. At the time, Education Minister Doris Rosas de Mata blamed the problems on "the bureaucracy." This year she says it's the school principals' fault that teaching positions have not been filled in time for the first day of classes.

Largely as a result of the economic complications caused by the September 11 attacks on the United States, Panama Canal toll revenues for the first quarter of fiscal year 2002 (October 2001 through January 2002) were $4.5 million lower than in the same period last year and $7.5 million less than had been projected in the Panama Canal Authority's budget. There were 3,391 ship transits in the recently concluded quarter, as compared to 4,454 in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

After fishermen reported encountering red tide blooms off of Isla Las Paridas and Majagual in Chiriqui province, the Health Ministry and the National Maritime Authority issued warnings about eating mollusks taken from waters in the area. Red tide, an algae that's toxic to humans and some marine organisms, presents a health threat for several weeks after it has disappeared from an area. Health officials are advising people to avoid eating shellfish and octopus taken from affected areas until at least 45 days after the red tide blooms have gone away.

On February 21 Panamanian citizen Marcelino Colt Vásquez and seven co-defendants went on trial before the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an alleged scheme to defraud investors in the New Energy Corporation. The SEC alleges a "classic pump and dump scheme" in which New Energy, a company without assets, was falsely promoted as the possessor of a revolutionary new solar cell manufacturing process with outstanding orders in excess of $50 million. A number of investors bought stock at inflated prices, until the SEC halted trading in New Energy this past January. The SEC trial is civil in nature, but could be followed by criminal proceedings or a quasi-criminal contempt case if the defendants are ordered to repay investors and fail to do so.

© 2002 by The Panama News All Rights Reserved For information or problems with this page contact: editor@ThePanamaNews.com