The Panama News has reported and will continue to report cases of corruption that may or may not stand up in court, or even get to court. When there are allegations of corruption that are newsworthy, we’ll report them too.
However, in any civilized legal system the principle of innocent until proven guilty prevails. No newspaper with reasonable ethical standards will take that axiom lightly.
It makes for some difficult balances at times. Many of the more predictable partisan accusations that are repeated in Panama’s corporate mainstream media are ignored by The Panama News. Sometimes we report on scandals that for whatever reason --- quite frequently, it seems, conflicts of interest on the part of owners or managers --- the mainstream won’t touch.
We’ve had a lot of practice at that balancing act. For the past 10 years, former Attorney General José Antonio Sossa’s efforts, along with those of the Supreme Court, legislature and the past two presidents, plus a lot of structural obstacles, combined to create an expectation of impunity for political corruption. That expectation was usually met, but both the impunity and the underlying acts of corruption were, are and will continue to be newsworthy.
This is not to say that over the past decade every allegation of wrongdoing made against a public official was true, but a lot of acts of government corruption really did happen. The Panama News takes the stand that just because an institution, politician or civil servant refuses to answer questions about an apparent scandal, or just because the legal system doesn’t take cognizance of the unpleasant truth of a matter, doesn’t mean that it’s something of which people have no right to know. And like many colleagues throughout the rest of the Panamanian media, we have been and will continue to be willing to risk criminal defamation charges by publishing the truth.
Now comes President Torrijos, promising “zero corruption” and presenting new challenges for journalism and society as a whole. He appointed a former prosecutor as anti-corruption secretary, and gave us a new attorney general who appears to be a great improvement over the one we had.
But as soon as Attorney General Ana Matilde Gómez issued a report indicating that certain criminal investigations would end up at former President Mireya Moscoso’s doorstep, Mireya reversed course and belatedly took her seat at the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) and the immunity from investigation and prosecution that goes with it. There she joins Ramón Martinelli, a ringleader of the Cambio Democratico party’s illegal party dues paycheck deduction scheme that was imposed upon the workers at the IDAAN public water and sewer utility, even as several of his accomplices were sentenced to prison for this.
Meanwhile, former Cocle governor Richard Fifer was charged on February 4 with two acts of embezzling public funds. It is said that he used phantom employees to pilfer the funds allotted to the provincial government and aid that Spain sent for the Arias Madrid Brothers Museum in Penonome. When the charges were announced, Fifer went underground and set his lawyers about the task of getting the arrest warrant against himself canceled. Then on February 10 his company, Petaquilla Minerals, SA, sold half a million shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange, trading on the inside knowledge --- still unreported in Canada --- that its CEO was a fugitive from justice. A few days after that sale, Fifer’s lawyers deposited more than $100,000 with the Office of Patrimonial Responsibility, an amount equal to that which prosecutors say he stole. Then on February 21 a judge held that since Fifer paid the money back, and even though the charges are still pending, the arrest warrant against the ex-governor was “illegal.”
On February 23, Petaquilla Minerals issued a press release with a photo of its chief financial officer meeting with President Torrijos on February 20, and alleging that the vice-minister of commerce and industry met with Fifer and his company’s CFO at an unspecified date.
Now it was bad enough for the president to make a public appearance with an officer of a company whose CEO was a fugitive from justice at the time. If a vice-minister met with the fugitive himself while he was on the run, that would be a mockery of the “zero corruption” pledge. But the president’s press spokespeople won’t answer questions about it. Martín’s press flack referred The Panama News to Richard Fifer’s company for answers to any questions about it.
It appears that once again, hustlers have used the Panamanian government as a publicity prop. In this case, there may be international implications. As in appearances that may lead Spain to conclude that the alleged theft of aid it sent to Panama is not taken seriously by Torrijos administration. As in a perception that could be created in Canada that Martín Torrijos is too ready to let his name and likeness be used to boost questionable dealings on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Well, maybe things are not as they appear. But the president’s anti-corruption promises will not be taken seriously for very long if he and the people around him continue to take such a flippant attitude about appearances that can be terribly damaging.
Far worse than the Torrijos administration’s gaffe with Fifer’s company, though, are the institutionalized incentives for corruption we have seen in recent days --- PARLACEN immunity and the willingness of the Panamanian courts to hear motions brought on behalf of fugitives from Panamanian justice.
The current president did not create these situations. However, with his party in firm control of the National Assembly, Martín could do something to correct them if he so desires.
At long last, Panama needs to quit PARLACEN, saving money, disassociating this country from a sordid and useless institution and in the process stripping away the veil of immunity behind which the likes of Mireya Moscoso and Ramón Martinelli hide.
And though the courts seem unwilling to do anything that might make the rich and powerful accountable before the law to the extent that ordinary citizens are, the legislative and executive branches could and should act to restrict the judiciary’s power to hear motions and appeals by people who evade the courts’ jurisdiction. Richard Fifer’s lawyers should have been told that no motion on the ex-governor’s behalf would be entertained so long as he was a fugitive. Former Banco Nacional de Panama director Bolívar Pariente’s attorneys should also be barred from making motions in court on his behalf, so long as their client stays underground to avoid the arrest warrant against himself.
“Zero corruption” means less than nothing so long as impunity is a reality. Even if there’s some positive commitment to the president’s stated goal, people aren’t going to believe in it if the administration creates appearances to the contrary. Nor will the plea that the practices of the courts or the provisions of a treaty prevent action against public corruption sit well when the executive and legislature have the power to remove such obstacles to justice.
So what will it be, Your Excellency? Will your administration really be any different?
Bear in mind...
Intellect does not attain its full force until it attacks power.
Madame de Staël
Habit, n. a shackle for the free.
Ambrose Bierce
There are no illegitimate children --- only illegitimate parents.
Leon R. Yankwich
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