First beneficiaries get checks

PANAMA. The first 20,000 over-70-year olds received their first $300 cheques this week when the Martinelli administration kept his electioneering promise to provide $100-a-month subsidies to elderly people with no pensions.

The first to receive payment and a hug from President Ricardo Martinelli was Micaela Almanza who has come to represent the social welfare programme. She said she hadn’t been in a bank in years.