Popular movements in Panama called today for a march on November 25 in defense of women’s rights, threatened by a bill on social security.
According to spokespersons for the alliance Pueblo Unido por la Vida, the demonstration will start in little over a week from the emblematic Belisario Porras park in this capital to the National Assembly (parliament) where the initiative presented by the Government on reforms to the Social Security Fund (CSS) is being debated, in the midst of a severe financial and structural crisis.
Representatives of unions, guilds and associations also agreed that after attending last week to consultations requested by the deputies who make up the Health and Labor commission, the document should be returned to the Executive so that, together with workers and private businessmen, it can make the necessary modifications and adjustments, but listening to the majority.
Spokesmen for the groups present at these exchanges with the legislators, such as Marco Andrade, general secretary of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (Conusi), indicated that the workers are opposed to raising the retirement age.
They also reject the fact that the CSS outsources services, which demonstrate the interest in privatizing the only public entity that serves retirees, he said.
He also questioned the excessive prerogatives that the document grants to the director of the CSS, businessman Dino Mon, to centrally manage the State’s resources.
For his part, Fernando Ábrego, from the Association of Teachers of Panama, urged the population to attend in their various communities with all these and other elements to the tour organized by the parliament.
He also urged Mon -the current director of the CSS-, the ministers of Health, Fernando Boyd; and of Economy and Finance, Felipe Chapman; and even the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, may be prosecuted for conflicts of interest, by presenting a project that seeks to seize the resources of all Panamanians, but they will not pass, he stressed.
Among the actions of the organizations in the remainder of the year, there are also meetings in the workplaces to reject the initiative and create their own communication systems on this subject.
After attending to requests for change from fifty people (of about 600 registered), the Health Commission of the parliament specified that starting tomorrow, Monday, it will listen to other criteria, without further details.
In the first appearance, the majority of the speakers supported the return to the solidarity pension system and demanded higher quality in medical services.
One of the proposals was presented by the rector of the University of Panama, Eduardo Flores, who explained that without raising the retirement age there are solutions to face the financial crisis of the CSS, among them avoiding tax evasion by taxpayers and companies, as well as increasing the profitability of Social Security funds, among others. (https://www.plenglish.com/news/2024/11/17/people-will-march-in-panama-in-defense-of-women-and-social-security/
