Originally posted in the Bocas Breeze
I am posting the entirety of this
article publishsed in the Bocas Breeze
because the each edition of the Breeze
is published online in one single "page"
and for people with slow connections,
scrolling down and waiting for
everything to load can be very tedious,
and there's no way to link specifically
to this particular article, which is in
this month's Breeze at:
http://www.thebocasbreeze.com/current-issue/volume-6-issue-6-june-jun.shtml
Bocas del Toro: Eden of Iniquity by
Allene Blaker
The lure of Panama, with its two oceans,
cool mountains, stable government,
fashion and trade centers, fishing,
surfing and natural beauty has brought
thousands of tourists to the country
and, not surprisingly, many have chosen
to stay.
For years, Panama has opened its arms
and welcomed foreigners with enticing
investment and retirement incentives.
Pensionado and forestation visas are
extremely attractive and relatively easy
to obtain.
In the last decade, Panama has seen a
dramatic increase in the number of
foreign residents, mostly from Europe,
the United States and Canada.
Outside of Panama City, the most
desirable properties are in Pacific
coastal developments, areas surrounding
the mountain village of Boquete, and the
Bocas del Toro archipelago.
Bocas del Toro is the province farthest
from the nation's capital. Though a mere
hour's plane ride away or an all-day
journey involving buses, taxis and water
taxis, the island group may as well be a
country of its own, and on its own. It's
like the Frontier, back in the days of
the Wild, Wild West: Whoever pins on the
badge is in charge, makes the laws and
enforces them with little or no regard
for national government rulings or
legislation.
Corruption, which is rampant in Panama
anyway, appears to be the norm in Bocas.
The fatter one's wallet, the easier it
is to get what one wants. Naturally,
it's the foreigners who have the hardest
time learning, understanding and coping
with this type of culture. And they end
up suffering the most.
Ten years ago, Dave "Kiwi" Gillingham
and his wife Lin bought a parcel of land
on Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro. Kiwi, a
native New Zealander, and Lin,
originally from England, are highly
respected members of the community,
known for their generosity to locals and
foreign residents alike, for their
uncompromising work ethics, outstanding
quality of workmanship, and recently,
for the public opening of their
beautiful botanical garden Finca Los
Monos.
Incredibly, the Gillinghams are now
under siege by a wealthy Panamanian
family that is making attempts to take
their home, their garden, and everything
they have worked for this past decade.
As part of their defense, the
Gillinghams and their attorneys drew up
a petition to Panama's Supreme Court
entitled Stop the Harassment of Legal
Land Ownership in Bocas del Toro,
Panama. It can be found online at
http://www.petitiononline.com/9828987/petition.html
Within days there were nearly 1200
signatures on the petition, many by
foreign residents in Bocas who are
experiencing the same illegal maneuvers
as Kiwi and Lin, and often by the same
officials.
Some petition signers left comments, a
few of which are inserted here, in
italics. Names are withheld, but can be
found in the original public petition.
If unlawful taking of land is allowed
because Panama has wealthy connected
families, the entire Panamanian real
estate market will suffer for a long
time due to distrust of officials and
lack of protection of those who invest
in the country. – D. & D. N
After spending several years as Peace
Corps volunteers in Africa and Central
America, Willy and Karan Schreiber
decided to settle in Bocas and bought
titled property in 2004. They built a
comfortable home with an excellent
across-the-bay view of Bocas town and
Isla Carenero.
One day last year, while they were
drinking coffee on their veranda and
enjoying yet another peaceful morning in
paradise, a vehicle pulled into their
driveway. Several men stepped out,
donned rubber boots, unloaded surveying
instruments and other paraphernalia, and
began walking in various directions.
When confronted, the surveying crew said
they were just doing their job. They
were ordered off the property but soon
returned with an edict signed by a
circuit judge saying they had the right
to be there.
Through their lawyers, the Schreibers
discovered that a new, and very large,
U.S.-based corporation had recently come
to Bocas and was intent on obtaining a
particular part of Isla Colon, which
included their own titled property.
They had no choice but to spend
thousands of dollars proving their clear
titled ownership and eventually won
their case. But they were so
disheartened by the ordeal they put the
entire place up for sale and are now
residing in Boquete.
We ask that the Honorable Judges of the
Panama Supreme Court come to Bocas and
review this and other land disputes over
which this circuit judge has presided.
We believe there have been many
irregularities in both procedure and
rulings which are inconsistent with
Panamanian law. We ourselves were
victims of such irregularities. While
Bocas is far from Panama City, the laws
regarding land ownership and entry are
the same. It is imperative that a Title
issued by the Public Registry have
validity. If title means nothing, the
Registry system should be closed. Please
give the same justice to Bocas Province
as you do to the rest of Panama. – K. S.
Besides signatures of foreign residents,
the petition contains many by
Panamanians who are also fed up with the
greed and corruption which many believe
to be so blatantly obvious in Bocas del
Toro. Hundreds of the Gillinghams' local
friends promise to be in the crowd of
protesters when and if the judge,
claimant and surveyors appear to mark
their illegitimate boundaries, an act
which has been scheduled and postponed
many times.
Bocas del Toro is in dire need of law
enforcement and equality in the eyes of
the law. Our community is disintegrating
and almost in a state of anarchy. I am
happy to see that Panamanians and
foreigners are joining together to
protect their rights. If we are heard,
this will be a monumental step towards a
safe, sound, and prosperous community. –
J. K.
In 1998, my husband and I visited
friends on Isla Colon who had been
residing here for several years. We
bought a small parcel of land from them
at the time and moved to Bocas del Toro
several years later.
We cleared and fenced our property, put
in a driveway, built a small house,
planted hundreds of fruit trees and put
in several large vegetable gardens.
In the last couple of years, two members
of an otherwise respectable Panamanian
family have been trying to regain a
family farm that was lost decades ago
due to non-payment of taxes. While the
original farm had no waterfront, these
men understand the value of coastal
property in the archipelago and
therefore have produced documents in
which they seek to procure not only
their original holdings, but all the
properties between it and the sea, which
includes our land and home and that of
fourteen of our neighbors.
Collectively, we have spent more than
$100,000 in attorney fees to fight these
two would-be usurpers. Two years ago,
the federal government ruled against
them. However, just last month eviction
notices against all of us were posted in
the mayor's office. How it got to that
point is anyone's guess.
We purchased property in 1998. It is
amazing to me that Panama receives such
good press about being a retirement
haven. We have had legal fees and
hassles for ten years because of
corruption and the inability of the
government to enforce the law.
Thankfully, there are some property
owners onsite in Bocas on a permanent
basis that have spearheaded the fight. –
R. M.
We have appealed to the mayor, Eligio
Binns; the provincial governor, Esther
Mena Chiu; and the Minister of Tourism,
Ruben Blades, none of whom have
responded to our requests for
investigation into this and other
matters involving land grabs and
contestion of land ownership.
We, too, have been victims of the Bocas
del Toro procedural irregularities. What
the law says and what happens in Bocas
are seldom the same. We urgently need
judicial oversight in Bocas. – H. W. S.
In 2006, Isla Cristobal resident Scott
Hedrick bought an oceanfront building in
Bocas town. The paperwork, according to
the Panamanian attorneys handling both
the sale and purchase, was immaculate,
with generations of ownership of the
property in perfect order. Scott and his
wife ran a successful and popular
boutique and artisan shop there until
February 2008, when they were handed an
eviction notice. Their attorneys
scrambled to prove that the Hedricks'
deed was valid but the circuit judge
(the same one involved in the
Gillinghams' plight) ruled against them.
They were given only a few hours to
empty their store and vacate the
property. Appeals have been fruitless.
Scott wrote an article about the
incident in the July 2008 issue of the
local newspaper, the Bocas Breeze (www.thebocasbreeze.com),
asking all those in the area who had
similar property issues to come forward
with their own stories. Within a week he
had a manila folder two inches thick
with complaints by dozens of local and
foreign residents.
I don't know anyone in Bocas who has not
been confronted with this same type of
scandal. There is a certain breed of
pirates who will stop at nothing. These
cases go on for years. This business is
called piracy. I have been a landowner
in Bocas since 1970. – C. S.
Real estate agents in Bocas del Toro are
almost unanimously outraged by the local
government's failure to stop (and even
abet) the land grab scams occurring in
the area. Owners of the popular agencies
(Century 21, Buena Vista Realty, Beyond
Bocas and Bocas del Toro Realty, among a
few others) know the laws regarding the
buying and selling of property here and
abide by them. They use reputable
Panamanian attorneys and every step of
the way insure safe acquisitions. Why,
then, are there so many land dispute
cases cropping up in the archipelago?
The corrupt government in Bocas del Toro
has cost many of us thousands of dollars
to try to protect land rights which
should never have been questioned.
Please put an end to it. – W. W. L.
Again, it seems to be almost entirely a
matter of pure, unchecked corruption. In
Panama, it's very easy for someone to
submit a claim of any sort. The person
who has been served then has the
responsibility to refute, deny, prove,
contest and condemn the claim, but this
costs money. And the attorneys on both
sides win in every case.
I have been a property owner in Bocas
Del Toro, but left due to the fraud and
corruption of the local and country
government agencies. Everything is done
by a bribe and there is no law against
land grabs. – K. J.
Residents of Bocas del Toro, whether
born-and-raised or foreign, are fed up
with the injustices here and
disheartened at the lack of federal
response to their pleas for help. The
Gillinghams' case may be the one to
finally attract the attention it sorely
needs.
This type of problem causes me to
reconsider my choice of retirement
homesites. If this is not settled fairly
many people around the world will give
second thought to investing or living in
Panama. – C. W.
We would like to purchase property in
Bocas del Toro. We hope Panama's court
system will stop this injustice, so
everyone can regain confidence in
investing in this beautiful country. –
J. S.
Meanwhile, those of us who have invested
here, live here, love it here and don't
want to be anywhere else … continue to
believe that justice matters.
We only hope that justice will
eventually prevail.
If our cries for justice are ignored by
the federal goverment, we will be forced
to protect our rights and our land
through violence. We pray that the
government will soon respond … not the
medical establishment. – C.P.
(Allene Blaker is the owner/editor of
the Bocas Breeze monthly newspaper in
Bocas del Toro, Panama, and a landowner
in Bocas since 1998.)
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