Candidates debate about Seguro Social

On November 17 Panamanian voters got the first chance to see all four presidential candidate in a debate together, in a TVN forum on the subject of the Social Security Fund (CSS, by its Spanish initials) that was hosted by Luz María Noli. Dark horse candidate Ricardo Martinelli, who once served as the fund’s director, may have impressed some voters with his easy command of the issues and his vow to take tough and courageous decision, but the night for the most part belonged to front-runners Martín Torrijos and Guillermo Endara.

The debate began with a question about what each man’s first step to rescue the CSS would be.

Mireyista standard bearer José Miguel Alemán led off, saying that he’d appoint someone who shares his vision, promising not to privatize the fund and then digressing into the tale of how earlier in the day he was at Mireya Moscoso’s side when she cut the ribbon at the new Santo Tomas Hospital.

Martinelli, who spoke third, said he’d find a good administrator rather than a politician to be director, and pick up with reforms that he pushed during the Pérez Balladares administration but which were ditched after he left as CSS director.

Guillermo Endara, speaking second, took the offensive, however. “I’m going to ask the board of directors and the high-up administrators for their resignations,” he said.

Martinelli and then Torrijos went on with their set answers --- the latter saying that he’d respect the fund’s autonomy, and wouldn’t privatize it or allow it to go bankrupt or be used as a petty cash box for the government. However, in the give-and-take of the first round, Endara’s promise proved to be the main topic of discussion.

Torrijos said that it would be a violation of the CSS’s legal autonomy to ask the directors and top administrators to resign. Alemán called Endara’s proposal “demagoguery.” But Endara shot back at Torrijos’s alternative of trying to work out an arrangement with the various unions and associations at Seguro. “”You mustn’t have deals between unions and the presidency,” the Solidaridad candidate warned.

Next question was about measures to save the Disability, Old Age and Death benefits program (IVM). Everyone said that they would change the law to allow the CSS to make investments that garner higher returns. Endara, however, said that some hard sacrifices will be necessary, and that he’d appoint a commission to study the subject for 90 days and come up with some recommendations, and that in light of this report he’d submit proposed changes to a vote by those who are paying into or receiving benefits from Seguro Social.

Everyone else panned Endara’s referendum idea, most of all Torrijos, who argued that all of society has a stake in the fund, that those who are not paying into it may be next year. “Future generations will be affected,” Torrijos argued. But Endara said that he has faith that people have wisdom and good will, and believes that when people are going to be asked to make sacrifices they ought to participate in the decision.

The third round was about reducing delays in getting medical attention, and the discussion turned to administrative matters like computerization, appointments made by telephone, better medicine purchasing procedures and so on. On this point there didn’t seem to be much disagreement among the candidates, and Martinelli’s experience made him stand out a bit.

In their summaries, Alemán promised not to privatize and not to raise the retirement age; Endara thanked everyone for hearing what he had to say and complimented his rivals for the civility of the discussion; Martinelli said that it will take courage and determination to change the Social Security law; and Torrijos argued that as the one candidate who has never had a part in cabinet decisions about the CSS, he’s in the best position to take a fresh approach.

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Front-runners dominate CSS debate