More like everybody YOU met was on the take.
If you go BEYOND the subculture of the car tag bureaucrat place, the Zonie affirmative action haven (kind of going to D.C. to "get to know America", and the usual places in Panama City and Colon where trailer-park trash hangs out, you will find Panamanians like Miguel Antonio Bernal that risk their skin on a regular basis to denounce and fight corruption.
Franklin Brewster. Read about the murder of drug detective in Panama http://franklinbrewster.weebly.com/