The National Assembly has become a body subservient to the Executive Branch, to the point of approving all requests which the President of the Republic makes, said politicians and members of civil society.
One of the latest actions that verifies this situation, according to those interviewed, is the election of Alfredo Castillero Hoyos as new Ombudsman.
In their view, with the election of an official close to the Government of Juan Carlos Varela the interference by the Executive in the legislature becomes evident.
That is, from the beginning it had been said that inside the Assembly that his appointment as ombudsman would be in exchange for the Presidency of the Assembly, for a PRD Legislator.
Only yesterday it could be proven how the appointment of Castillero Hoyos would bear a political tinge, since former candidate to Legislator for the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), Elsa Fernández Aguilar, was appointed as Deputy Ombudsman.
For Panamameñista Jorge Gamboa Arosemena, there is confirmation of what everyone knows. "The legislative branch is an appendix of the Executive."
He argued that the legislators are prisoners of the trading of influence, through Legislator José "Popi" Varela, "the matraqueador", puts them in line to receive privileges.
"Varelismo (Varela´s political movement) is destroying the Panameñismo, and is also taking to destruction the little democracy that we had," he said.
He added that the only way to eradicate the problem is through an original constituent power.
At the same time, Carlos Lee, Member of Civic Alliance, says that it has become evident what all of society knows. "Here an Ombudsman is appointed in an exclusively political debate; the Ombudsman should become the Procurator of Human Rights".
Lee argues that nominating a person amid political business and its related stakeholders, weakens the institution. "It has been born flawed, because it excludes the possibility of citizens to have participation in that nomination process."
At the same time, former-legislator Teresita de Arias said that while there was no “transfuguismo” (ease with which politicians change party affiliation), this Government has found a way of doing favors without asking for people to change their political affiliation".
"What is happening is that in the absolute collapse of the political parties, is that in the absence of a responsible, serious and also essential opposition, they are endangering democracy", said the political leader, who notes that this principle exists among the three branches of the State.
"As the Constitution reads they are independent from each other, and they must act in harmonious collaboration, and not harmonic subordination; what we are doing here is a mockery of that article of the Constitution. That was what happened with the magistrates, with the Ombudsman and what will continue to happen ", he said.
Independent legislator, Ana Matilde Gómez, acknowledged that there is a control of the Executive in the Assembly. This is due to the need of its members to obtain supplies to solve problems of their constituents and achieve their re-election to their posts.
Appointments by the National Assembly have been indulgent
One of the first appointments questioned for possible interference by the Executive in the Assembly was that of the Comptroller General of the Republic, Federico Humbert.
Prior to his election, the President acknowledged having spoken with nine members of the PRD, although he denied that it was on the subject of that election in the Assembly.
On the other hand, the legislator Zulay Rodríguez denounced the intervention of the Executive in the hearing and investigation carried out by the Legislator Prosecutor Pedro Miguel González during the trial and sentence of former magistrate of the Court Supreme of Justice, Alejandro Moncada Luna.
In this case, his statements were not investigated in depth.
By the end of last year, Minister of the Presidency, Álvaro Alemán, submitted a list of 10 recommended names to assume the post of magistrate of the Supreme Court, of which four had close ties with the Government of President Varela.
