A few days ago, an article was published in a local media announcing that the President, Martin Torrijos, had included the tourism drafts of bills among the requests for extraordinary powers granted by the Legislative branch. The news aroused reactions among some members of the tourism sector in the capital city.
We would like to address some of the comments:
First: During the breaks of each of the National Assembly’s periods of operation, when drafts of bills are pending revision and when the approval of these are a urgent matter, the Constitution has granted the Executive Branch the power to rule over them, assuming a legislative function.
But it is of vital importance that the Executive branch identifies specifically the drafts of bills that it considers urgent, important or special and that it notifies the Assembly of its intention. Only then it can act and only upon the drafts of bills identified, presented and approved by the Legislative branch.
The recent article announced that the President, according to Constitutional powers, asked for the permission and identified amongst drafts in order to rule with his extraordinary powers the following two: the Ley Nacional de Turismo and the Ley Orgánica de Turismo, replacing the Decree – Law 22 of 1960 and creating the Tourism Authority.
The Executive branch has until the end of March 2008 to act upon. In other words, its approval or enactment is not immediate.
Second: Loaiza from APATEL and Vallarino from the Chamber of Commerce as well as the remaining members of IPAT’s Board where publicly informed (as recent as December 2007) that the drafts of bills where being shared with other governmental entities and that we were waiting for their feedback to be included in the drafts of the two bills: the Ley Orgánica that creates the Tourism Authority and the Ley Nacional de Turismo. During my participation in the Board’s meeting as General Manger and the Minister in charge of Tourism, we expressed that we didn’t thought practical presenting incomplete drafts of bills to the Board. In the Board’s act of the corresponding day, my words should be recorded regarding the presentation of incomplete drafts.
We assured you that the drafts would be presented as soon as they were ready. This was also my position as I met with members of the National Assembly to inform them about the process and the reasons behind the drafts of bills regarding Tourism. It was also my position as I participated in many local, national meetings with Industry members. This shouldn’t be a surprise as I have been talking for more than a year of the need to update the Legal apparatus of Tourism, Regarding the content of the drafts of bills, we have gone a long way to establish a subject matter and we have been working on the drafts that are still under revision.
The Panamanian democratic system establishes that bills should be drafted by governmental entities and after they arrive to the National Assembly a consultation period should follow involving the different interest groups and the general public to collect all point of views.
This is yet the case of the drafts of bills that worry us. It was until last December the 13 that I was in meetings with the legal advisors going thru the content of both drafts, line by line, and making comments on the margins when we thought the topics deserved detailed analysis. I am not used to mediocrity and I am applying the same level of commitment and responsibility to the planning of these bills as to all my goals. I hope that on the week of the 26th of the December we could have a first full draft of the bills. God willing. I don’t understand the reasoning behind the indignation of some. The Executive branch has suggested that the draft of a bill that will create the Tourism Authority to be approve by extraordinary powers but the President hasn’t signed upon this yet.
As ordered by the General Accounting Office, I am on vacation and out of the country since the 17th of December. I have given instructions to the Assistant Director, Nordström, that as soon as the first drafts of the bills are ready, to be handed to the Vice-Minister Carmen Gisela Vargas from the Ministry of Commerce, and ad interim chairman of the board. I am also requesting an extraordinary session with the Board for January the 10th where we could start going thru all the articles of both drafts, line by line, to listen to all the input from the members of the Board under the guidance of the ad- interim President.
I recommend for the media to be invited to the session for them to listen to the discussion amongst Board members. This will ensure absolute transparency of procedures; evidence the good intentions of the Government that supports public discussions of drafts of bills and it will leave testimony of the intentions and reasoning behind all Board members. I am all in favor to involve and invite the media. What do Board members Loaiza and Vallarino have to say about this?
I am also requesting for this session to be taped so there is faithful, visual and irrefutable testimony of what is spoken and the degree of commitment. A copy of this tape will be handed to the Executive branch for direct information without intermediaries or interpreters.
Third: About the President’s reasoning behind his decision to include the creation of the Tourism Authority in the requests for extraordinary powers, I can only speculate.
He might be considering moving forward the process, depoliticize it, or extract it from the pre-elections climate that is starting to build up. I don’t know. What should be crystal clear is that – contrary to the comments of a few with too short of a memory- neither the IPAT or the Government has ever attempted to play deaf to the opinion of the private sector. Like I have said and it is recorded, we are still waiting for final drafts on which to start having opinions.
The President will decide and rule when he receives the final comments from all the involved parties – IPAT’s Board, members of the economic sector, public entities, Cabinet, and of course, from the Minister in charge of Tourism.
On behalf of IPAT and the Tourism sector I am thankful for the support and willingness expressed by the President in welcoming and helping make possible the process that will bring into life the tourism laws - so urgently needed. I believe that the President’s worry lies in diminishing the distractions common of pre-electoral periods, almost on top of us; this will help reduce the vast amount of draft of bills to be ruled upon in the short time of public administration left for the current government.
Happiness and a successful and healthy 2008 to all.
Rubén Blades
Minister in charge of Tourism
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