Bernal, Tasks for City Hall

Tasks for city hall
by Miguel Antonio Bernal

I insist that our capital city urgently needs for all of us to give our best in order to get a new kind of a city --- a city where we can feel proud and contented to live, because it's a safe, healthy, happy and dynamic city. But also just, prosperous, inclusive and with a quality of life that promotes happiness.

Both citizens residing in the city and visitors suffer from the insecurity that reigns on the streets and in our homes, where assaults, thefts, robberies, "express" kidnappings and murders are every day more frequent.

In order to begin to solve this insecurity problem, it is among other things necessary to implement a policy that promotes formal employment, which would allow greater levels of investment and socio-economic development, the aim being to eliminate marginalization, and:

To have an adequate infrastructure that eases access, communication and basic services;
To modernize the institutions of municipal business, so as to cut red tape;
To fight corruption and eliminate arbitrariness;
To guarantee adequate health conditions;
To train qualified human resources in order to increase productivity --- something that's particularly complex, given the existing educational deficit in Panama.

It's urgently necessary to adopt strategies of prevention and not just control to change life in the neighborhoods. Thus we're going to work to have a citizenry who put high priority on civic and moral values, by way of coordinated and sustainable actions and with a high degree of community participation.

As a jurist committed to Panama, my mayorship would stimulate social harmony, with great respect for the law, individuals and the general public. I'm passionate about obtaining these objectives within the framework of the legality that guarantees stability, with honor and transparency. We have to anchor our search for social equity in the law, ethics and morality.

On September 8, 2000, meeting in New York, 189 member states of the United Nations, in the presence of 147 heads of state or government, formulated the Millennium Declaration, which synthesized the signatory nations' commitment to comply with the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty; improve levels of health and education; and promote peace, human rights, gender equality and environmental stability; all with clear goals to evaluate in the year 2015.

My campaign team and I feel committed to these objectives, which would improve conditions in our city. We know that to take on commitments with goals, strategies and compliance dates, we have to set guidelines that allow any citizen to judge our performance. And that's what we want to do.

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