The Unlawyer

It isn’t very common nowadays for one to hear of sailors committing mutiny on the high seas, but a crew of nine (9) Filipino mariners on the fishing boat UAICSIXA that was sailing on the Indian Ocean did just that last Sunday, apparently in protest over the captain’s harsh regime.

As the mutiny occurred onboard a (presumably) Taiwanese-flagged vessel, the laws of the Republic of China regarding mutiny will most likely be applied to punish the participants of the crime, if they are ever haled before that country’s courts. In the Philippines, mutiny is defined in Art, 122 of the Revised Penal Code, and is punished by up to 20 years’ imprisonment – reclusion temporal in Philippine legalese – so I’m certain that Taiwan has a similarly severe penalty as well.

Today’s BusinessWorld begins a two-part series on how fraud has severely decimated confidence in legitimate multilevel marketing firms in ‘Pyramiding’ fallout still taking its toll on multilevel marketing firms. Here’s an example:

“In its heyday, Forever Living Products Philippines, Inc., sold almost P1.5 billion worth of health, beauty, and other products. This was in 2001, when the Philippine branch of the Scottsdale, Arizona manufacturer of aloe vera products, formed by Parañaque Rep. Roilo T. Golez, broke into the country’s top 400 companies.

“In 2005, Forever Living sales dwindled to P227.2 million, down from P351.8 million in 2004. The company’s net loss for that year narrowed to P3.4 million from P3.8 million the prior year. Last year Forever Living’s revenues continued to decline, at P157.95 million. Its net loss widened to P4.567 million.”

In the spirit of Todos los Santos, BusinessWorld also published a brief primer regarding what estate planning in the Philippine context is all about.

Returning to last month’s Glorietta 2 disaster, it looks like Philippine police are standing pat on their theory that an accident, and not a deliberate terrorist act, rendered asunder Ayala Land’s shopping mall: Glorietta gas blast theory: Police tell skeptics to go to court.

Philippine jurisprudence places great weight on the reports produced government officials, such as police forensic experts, otherwise known as the presumption of regularity in the performance of official duties, and it is incumbent on the party seeking to discredit it to offer strong competent evidence in order for a court to overturn the same.

Regarding Glorietta tenants who were affected by the blast, I heard Ayala Land spokesman Alfonso Reyes declare over DZMM radio yesterday morning that his company has ceased charging rent to those tenants housed in the doomed building and has also refunded the security deposit of some. He also said that his company has extended a discount on the rent for the remainder of the Glorietta’s tenants.

What is that old saw about statistics? As Philippine government officials crow about the positive results revealed by the preliminary results of the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), two economists tear this interpretation of the data apart. Read Mangar Mangahas say his piece in The deceptive NEDA press release and Cielito Habito in Unequal incomes.

Amidst the specter of USD 100 a barrel of crude oil, a scenario which Bayi alerted me to some weeks back, some Philippine leftists are urging the government to institute price controls on petroleum products. My question though is: who is going to pay for all that?

In the Philippine blogosphere, Atheista poses an interesting question: Should Children Who Neglect Their Elderly Parents Be Criminally Liable? Akomismo offers a solution to the Hollywood production companies affected by the Writer’s Guild of America strike: Outsource! Speaking of work, both The J Spot is hiring 10 bloggers to write for him and Making Money With a 13 Year Old is looking for a blogger to write a guest entry on his site.

At least one Filipino expatriate throws cold water at the excitement surrounding the recent delivery of the Airbus A380 to launch customer Singapore Airlines. Read this excerpt:

“Think this:

“15-inch wide seats. For 16 hours. Seat back in front of you reclined right into your face. You can’t get at the iPod, laptop, books and magazines crammed into the seatback pocket, and your shoes disappeared somewhere under row 57.

“Locked into this crammed aluminum box with 800 other people, screaming infants, bad odor and the unwashed.

“Locked in, an hour before departure. (How early do you think they will have to start loading 800 people? With just 300 they already start 40 minutes before pushback.)

“People already shifting uncomfortably, wrestling for armrest space, fighting over the airconditioning vents. Roll-aboard bags being hefted into overflowing bins.”

As for passengers with enough money to fly first class on Singapore Airlines’ Airbus A380 jets and book a double bed on what the airline calls its Singapore Airlines Suites – you can do most anything except induct yourself and your partner into the Mile-High Club: Sex Not Allowed in Airbus A380 Double Bed Suites. As a company spokesman announced, with considerable understatement:

““If couples used our double beds to engage in inappropriate activity, we would politely ask them to desist,” said the company’s Stephen Forshaw.

““There are things that are acceptable on an aircraft and things that aren’t, and the rules for behaviour in our double beds are the same ones that apply throughout the aircraft.””

I can’t seem to find a Singaporean statute that punishes sexual intercourse between consenting heterosexual adults in public, unlike homosexual sex which is still prohibited by Section 377A of their Penal Code, whether done in public or private. There is a law in the books, however, that penalizes “public nuisances” in Section 268 of the same code with a fine of up to SGD 200. Is this correct?

The Filipino Librarian shares some useful Filipiniana links. The Four-Eyed Journal explores how SMS messaging – texting in other words – has evolved over time.

For those of you who are interested in these sorts of things, Hooters is coming to the Philippines soon!