Legal Cases

After the government approvals of the permits required for the PSA concession, between March and April 2015, the lawyer and politician Miguel Antonio Bernal filed two criminal complaints against PIMPSA

The second complaint filed by the lawyer Miguel Antonio Bernal was a claim against the ex-President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, the ex-Minister of Economy, Frank De Lima, the ex-Director of the Unidad Administrativa de Bienes Revertidos

In the last three years, Alexis Zuleta (former Director of Public Tenders), has filed three successive complaints against the concession granted to PSA. Like Bernal, Zuleta also presented his complaints on his own behalf, for the "benefit of the Panamanian people."

On February 23, 2016, Alexis Zuleta filed a claim of unconstitutionality with the Supreme Court, stating that the provisions of the Contract Law that were cited violated articles 18, 159, 259, 276 and 316 of the Constitution of the Republic of Panama.

In 2016, Crispiano Adames and Irving Ríos, both legislators of the National Assembly and representatives of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), tried to repeal Law No. 2 of February 10, 2015 on two occasions.

On March 7, 2017, Alexis Zuleta filed a claim of unconstitutionality with the Supreme Court, stating that the Contract Law between the Maritime Authority of Panama and PSA contains two clauses that are unconstitutional.

On July 19, 2017, lawyers Cochez and Martínez filed a complaint with the Attorney General of the Criminal Office, requesting an investigation into the process of awarding the previous and current concession of the Rodman area. The accusations include misconduct and abuse of authority by the Public Administration and questioned a supposed association between PIMPSA, Serviamerica and PSA to self-assign a concession agreement.

On August 24, 2017, Guillermo Cochez and Víctor Martínez filed an unconstitutionality document before the Supreme Court, alleging that Contract Law No. 2 is contrary to Article 290 of the Constitution of Panama, to obtain the declaration of unconstitutionality of the Law 2 of 2015.

In April 2018, while the Assembly was discussing the Draft Bill No. 53 related to commercial activities in residential areas, the deputy Roberto Ayala introduced in this Bill, an article that repeals the Contract Law of PSA.

On Wednesday, October 10, 2018, the deputy of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, Carlos Motta, presented the Bill 715 before the National Assembly to repeal Law 2 of February 10, 2015, which approves the contract between the State and PSA Panama. Motta’s argument claims that PSA Panama represents the Government of Singapore and that it owns the area object of the concession agreement. In a previous case, this allegation was used and it was ruled in favor of PSA Panama.