opinion

The Untouchables
by Miguel Antonio Bernal

With ever more frequency high public officials engage in acts of corruption, collusion and other criminal practices in order to be left free from the action of the justice system. The result is that there has now developed a caste of untouchables, the product of the indiscriminate misapplication of justice.

The proposed elimination of the summary proof rule in investigation of public servants in the new Code of Criminal Procedure --- a project promoted by the Alianza Ciudadana Pro Justicia --- attempts to avoid the requirement that obliges one who files a complaint against a public official to accompany it with some sort of proof that sustains it. The demand for this requisite is one of the factors that has allowed the conversion of public officials into "The Untouchables" for Panamanian justice, at the same time stimulating acts of corruption and abuse of authority.

A true rule of law must place permanent emphasis on the action of public servants, as abuses of power in the exercise of their functions and omissions in the same have caused much harm and prejudiced the rights of many, and a lot of those who have been affected by acts of corruption are even today looking for recompense.

The proposal under discussion seeks to make judges and magistrates into guarantors, with the function of strengthening citizens' rights in the struggle against corruption, but so long as the government of the moment places no value on human rights, we can't count on justice in this country. Because of them, our system of justice has failed in this sense, and many Panamanians seek justice before entities like the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) in Washington, DC.

Of all the fundamental human rights guarantees, one of the most important is due process of law. There are ever more complaints against the Panamanian government, alleging disrespect for due process, pending before the IAHRC. This, because certain public officials, due to their positions or their ties to the current government, have been left with impunity after having committed flagrant violations of the constitution and laws in the exercise of their functions. Due to the influence that these officials have exercised and the ways they have used their powers, the judicial authorities don't want to investigate them because they're afraid of reprisals by the ruling party.

Many are the cases in which, even though those affected have obtained and attached the summary proofs, the public officials were never investigated because they were considered "untouchable," which prompted their impunity. So long as this situation continues, you can't ask the people on the Supreme Court to "be fair with justice" and it will be ever more difficult to attack corruption and do justice in Panama.