Answer
If a literal '%' character embedded directly in the condition string is causing problems specifically in Aurena, try building the wildcard using the CHR function instead of typing '%' literally — CHR(37) evaluates to the '%' character (37 is its ASCII code, confirmable via SELECT ASCII('%') FROM DUAL), so the condition becomes UPPER(ITEM_DESCRIPTION) LIKE UPPER(CHR(37) || '$CPF_NOME$' || CHR(37)). Building the wildcard via CHR(37) concatenation rather than a literal '%' character in the string has resolved this specific Aurena-only parsing issue for cases where a directly-typed '%' doesn't work.