Sun Tzu Advice No. 11: Time to Consider Plan B

Whoever advised the President to make the apology did poor intelligence work. Why did these adivsers ever think that the Filipinos would be happy with an apology? That's pure wishful thinking. To have a President saying I'm sorry to everybody does not appeal to people's interest. It would not make their lives any better. It would only make it more fun to lampoon the President. If these advisers thought that this crisis would go away now, they are wrong. This crisis is now about to dominate everyone's life, and the ending is clearly visible.

"What profits a woman if she gains the entire world but loses her soul?"

Ma'am, the time has come for you to consider Plan B.

The politician of God's love

I had a final chance to be around Jaime Cardimal Sin before his retirement a couple of years ago. It was a Sunday Mariapolis event at Rizal Coliseum hosted by the Focolare community. The Sunday Mariapolis is a whole-day affair where members, adherents, volunteers, and friends of the Focolare gather for witnessing the basic tenets of the movement. The program started promptly at around 9:00am. At around 11:00 am, a little skit was being played out on the stage, when the host halted everything to announce the arrival of Jaime Cardinal Sin, then already feeling the weight of old age. There were loud cheers as people gathered to kiss his hand. And as he staggered his way, I asked myself how long has it been since this great man was "fanning the flames" of discontent against the Marcos regime? Many years after, he was still around, this time sharing the faith with his flock. When he made it to the microphone to speak about how happy he was that he made it to the Mariapolis that day, tears fell from my eyes. There was no burning issue of the day. No president to topple. It was just an occasion for an old cardinal to be with his flock, and the struggle was for the strength to make it to the stage. The thought came to explain the tears, this man truly loved his flock. And his politics was not about power for himself or for a dynasty. It was about God's love. And like God's love, his politics was constant and consistent. You can not accuse Jaime Cardinal Sin of ever being on the wrong side. His place in my history book is secured.

I feel blessed to have lived in the time of Jaime Cardinal Sin. May he rest in peace.

Sun Tzu Advice No. 10: Time to use the "P" word.

Sun Tzu says, "If you are strong, you attack. If you are weak, you defend."

The President can still win the battle for public approval in this controversy about her wiretapped conversations. GMA should show everyone that this controversy is less about cheating in the elections, but more about private conversations being kept private.

It's time to argue the case for the "P" word. It's time to tell the State it went too far. Private time is private time. As in the case of an ordinary individual, whatever the President does on her private time is beyond the public domain. The right to privacy is a fundamental principle of the Filipino's social pact with the Philippine state. Violate the right to privacy, and the social pact is broken.

At first, everyone may disgree with the invocation of this right in this particular case. Yet, imagine for a moment, that Mrs. Arroyo is not the President. Take this case in isolation of the political reality. Is it really proper for the people to feast on her private cellphone conversations? Is it right for the State to meddle with anybody's phone calls without the proper procedures?Do we all have to explain to the Philippine State the meaning of our conversations?

The question of the day is not whether she is one of the voices on the tapes, but whether anyone has any business listening to the tapes. First things first. If the State will uphold the right to privacy of a sitting president, the most public of this country's private citizens, then the State will uphold the right to privacy of the rest. Is anybody arguing that the President has no right to privacy? It's preposterous. It's like saying she cannot close the door when she goes to the bathroom. The privacy she enjoys is the privacy we can all enjoy. How can anyone argue with that?

If people think that the "Hello Garci" ringtones are cool, then they missed the point. The joke is on them. Somebody has spooked the highest official in the land. What makes them think it cannot happen to them? Their darkest secrets will never be safe, and they will never be able to live with it. Senator Serge Osmena has been distributing copies of the wiretapped conversations of the President to challenge the Justice Secretary to sue. But Senator Serge should watch out, for what if he too has been spooked, and the tape is mixed with those he distributes? One of the voices in those tapes might turn out to be his. What dark secrets of the good senator would be revealed? Will we find out what really happened in his Eskapo story with the late Geny Lopez? The right to privacy that he is violating might as well be his.

While I still believe that waiving the benefits of the anti-wireapping law is necessary in order for the people to bring the crisis to the courts instead of the streets, I am also saying that the President should raise the issue of privacy to the bar of public opinion. She should appeal to their sense of decency. Decent people do not listen to private conversations, for at the end of the day, no one is perfect. Each has his dark little secret, and no one has the right to publicize someone else's dark secrets -- most definitely not without consent.

Ma'am this is your strongest argument: "The right to privacy has primacy." Sun Tzu says attack.

See Atty Punzi's accompanying blog lecture on the right to privacy here.

(revised post)

Sun Tzu Advice No. 9: "Ma'am we have a new crisis."

Sun Tzu says, "Just as water shapes itself to the ground an army should manage its victory in accordance with the situation of the enemy. Just as water has no constant shape, so in warfare there are no rules."

GMA is no longer in an immediate danger of being ousted. The people have not taken the streets, and there are no crowds converging in any historic site. Likewise, the opposition failed to find a leader to coordinate the assaults. But the public opinion weighs heavily against the President. This is going to be very nasty.

We can expect the President and the First Family to become the butt of jokes. She is going to be lampooned on the radio, tv, newspapers and the internet. Already the "Hello Garci" ringtones are a hit. Iggy Boy's "walang bagyo-bagyo sa 'kin" statement is now animating conversations everywhere. A lot of creative energy is going to be spent making fun of the First Family in the grand tradition of Plaridel and Dimasalang. How can she possibly live with it? Her people would address her as her Excellency when she's talking to them , and they would be calling her a cheater when she turns her back. Can she trust that her bodyguards would not have the "Hello Garci" ringtones on their cellphones? Trouble is, how long are the jokes going to last? She still has a full five years in her term. It is going to be an emotional hell.

The DOJ and the NBI have apparently been instructed to run after people distributing the wiretapped tapes. But with the current technology that allows anyone with a computer to download copies on the internet, it would be impossible to capture all those copies. Further, the legal disputes that the effort will create is going to be another potential source of embarassment. If they reach the Supreme Court, these cases would serve as written history for future generations to remember a President who ordered a Comelec commissioner around during her reelection. This reminds me of Richard Nixon. What do we remember about him but only the freshman law school staple, US vs. Nixon ? All that Nixon did as President of the US are just footnotes to this case, or mere embellishments in the movies that the Watergate Scandal spawned.

This brings me back to Marcos and his own Comelec back in the 1986 snap elections. The Filipino people knew Marcos controlled the Comelec, but no direct evidence against Marcos was ever produced. GMA has three hours of telephone conversations with Garci. It makes Marcos look like an amateur. History will not be kind.

Perhaps, GMA will manage to stay as President. But the people will remember her unkindly. Ma'am we have a new crisis.

The Sun Tzu Advice No. 8: "Seize the Sun Tzu Moment"

Sun Tzu says, "Those who cannot win must defend, those who can win must attack. Defend when one's forces are inadequate, attack when one's forces are abundant."

The initial battles are over, but the war has not been won. While Sammy Boy has been temporarily neutralized -- thanks to his own folly, he was sent out of by his hosts in San Carlos Seminary -- the endgame scenario has not been drawn. GMA should take a look again at her political screenshot. Has there been any shift in loyalties among her people? The public sentiments appear to be clearly red or white, but very few are willing to take the streets again unlike in EDSA I and II.

Thus, the timing is perfect for her to make the strong pitch for the constitutional process. She and her allies should start barraging media with appeals for sobriety and the need to uphold the rule of law. She should start challenging people to take her to court, instead of protesting in the streets. As stated in the previous posts, the sooner that this crisis is brought to the courts, the sooner that it will be resolved. With her renewed strength, thanks to Sammy Boy's disappearance from the public's eye, she should focus now on convincing the public to trust the system. Trust Congress that it will consider the impeachment raps. Trust the Ombudsman to consider the curious case of Mikey and Uncle Iggy. She should stop those speeches that tend to brag about her accomplishments in office. It's easier to convince people not to take the streets, because there are laws to be followed, than to tell them not to take the streets, because she is a good president.

The inherent weakness of the opposition is its lack of organization. This means she can reach out to them one by one, win them over, and ruin their spotty alliance. She should start reaching out to the opposition senators. Perhaps, it's time for her to apologize to Senator Pimentel for her abrupt decision to ditch the Salonga-Pimentel senatorial slate in 1992 in favor of Lakas? Perhaps Mike Defensor can now apologize to Sen. Madrigal for his harsh statements about her family and plead to her to stop calling for the President to resign? Whatever it takes, she should crush the opposition by winning over their most respected men. Now is the perfect time to do so.

This is what I call the Sun Tzu moment -- the exact moment when the falcon should strike and break the body of its prey. GMA should seize that moment now.

Sun Tzu Advice No. 7: "Let Sammy Boy Go".

How do you solve a problem like Samuel Ong? - Rodgers and Hammerstein

Free. Free. Set him free. - Sting

MLQ3 reports on the rumor that there was a grand debate in the palace on the right approach to Samuel Ong. The military wants to have him arrested to silence him forever. But the civilians, namely Sec. of Defense Nonong Cruz and Sec. of Environment and Natural Resources Mike Defensor, think such move will backfire. Who is thinking Sun Tzu here? The civilians, of course.

As stated in advice nos. 3 and 5, this crisis should be fought in the courts and not in the streets. If Sammy Boy is arrested, that leaves the enemies no option but to take the streets. And the streets are where the President is sure to loose this crisis. While Sammy Boy cannot be allowed to roam around carrying those tapes, putting him behind bars would create a negative impact that may be hard to contain.

Thus, the best way to deal with Sammy Boy is to give him a clean way out. Another country may offer him asylum - Swizerland, Canada, USA, Timboktu perhaps? If you let Sammy take an asylum in another country that would take care of his concern for his safety, and that would also take him away from the reach of the street parliamentarians. And please, the legal objections on those tapes have to go, otherwise. the government would have to arrest everybody who has posted copies of the tapes all over the web. Bad move. The people will surely take the streets if that is done. The legal objections have to go, so people would take the matter to court instead.

Sun Tzu Advice No. 6: "Watch your back."

Journalist Ricky Carandang has published today in INQ7.net what appears to be the proposal from the left of center political forces. The scenario he painted is for the respected members of the cabinet to threaten the President to resign, unless she does the honorable thing of resigning in the face of the scandal. In Mr. Carandang's words,

"If a critical mass of Cabinet officials, especially those known as reformists and not associated with her husband, Mike Arroyo, threaten to resign unless she steps down. The specter of the most respected Cabinet members resigning would eventually be the deathblow that would lead to the collapse of her government. Even if she were to replace them, it would only delay the inevitable. The damage to her of mass resignations would just be too great for her to survive. In other words the only choice President Arroyo would have in this scenario would be to step down in an orderly fashion or have her government eventually toppled in a messy coup or revolution."

In the light of this proposal, GMA should now check her political screenshot. Who among her cabinet secretaries are the targets here? Immediately, we can point to Cesar Purisima, Secretary of Finance, and Butch Abad, Secretary of Education, who are among the most respected names in her cabinet. She should have these two scouted -- Butch Abad in particular, because Butch has the social democrats and the Liberal Party with him. What should she do if these guys' icons, which I presume to be green, turn white, and then eventually turn red? She should move heaven and earth to convince these guys to stay. But would they be able to carry the pressure from the left of center and from their constituents to make the move? This is where GMA can truly test her political skills. Can she keep her most respected people in the fold?

What did Vito Corleone say? "Keep your friends close to yourself. And your enemies closer."

Interesting times we live in.

Sun Tzu Advice No. 5:"Ma'am the lawyers have to go."

Sun Tzu says, "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. This does not mean that the enemy is to be allowed to escape. The object is to make him believe that there is a road to safety, and thus prevent his fighting with the courage of despair. For you should not press a desperate foe too hard."

GMA has to waive the protection afforded to her by the anti-wiretapping act. Pounding the wiretapped tapes with all legal might will only make her enemies desperate and take the streets. I stated earlier that if this battle is fought in th streets, GMA is sure to lose it. But if this battle is fought on the courts, she has a fair chance of winning and surviving her term. If she waives the legal objections to the wiretapped tapes, then this will pave the way for the sensible people in the opposition to take the legal route of this crisis. Of course, the reds will stick to the streets, but that's expected of them. What is important is that the masses could be dissuaded from taking the streets because there is a democratic and legal way to resolve the conflict created by the wiretapped tapes.

Everyody knows at this point that the tapes are being brandished as the smoking gun of how she cheated in the elections. At present, her crisis team has received orders to prosecute all found to have possession of the same, including those who posted copies on their web pages. I don't know where GMA got this advice, but that person has no understanding of political strategy whatsoever. The adverse energy created by the tapes could be compared to water, it will seek its level. It will push where there is low gravity, and GMA will need a basin strong enough to contain its enormous power. Does she have this basin on hand? Will it last long enough for her to make it through? The answer is, of course, no. Nobody could possibly handle that, not for a long time. Remember Erap and his envelope no. 2? That legal ploy to defeat the motion to open envelope no. 2 sparked EDSA II. What's the lesson to be learned? Stonewalling the truth using legal tricks does not sit well with the Filipino psyche. It has led to the ouster of a President, and it is still as potent as ever. Thus, there is no use capturing all copies of those tapes. She has to waive all her legal objections to it, so the people will go to court and not the streets. Otherwise, she is going to have a desperate foe. And Sun Tzu says beware the courage of a desperate foe.

Ma'am, the legal objection has to go. If your lawyers do not approve, then your lawyers have to go.

Sun Tzu Advice No. 4: "Act fast"

Sun Tzu says, "Speed is the essence of war. Capitalize on the unpreparedeness of the enemy; travel by the unexpected routes; and attack those places where he does not take precautions.

If there is one thing going for the President in this hour of crisis, it's the fact that her enemies appear to be running around like headless chickens. The volleys are uncoordinated, sporadic, aimless, and at best amateurish. In other words, they don't know what they are doing. And Sammy Boy -- the guy simply wants to save himself from sure death. The question is how come it isn't over yet? It's been three days.

If the President allows this situation to be in this state beyond the Independence Day long weekend, her enemies will have enough time to sit, plan, and coordinate their moves. Sure, the movie fans, thanks to their political naivette, are unlikely to merge forces with the left. But for how long? Sooner or later, they will learn. Even lab rats learn from mistakes. Who knows?

High in the agenda is to take out Sammy Baby. By now, we all know his motivations. He thinks he is trapped and his only salvation is on those tapes. How come GMA hasn't struck a deal with him for his clean way out? Give the poor man an exit, a UN appointment, a political sanctuary, get him on an asylum to Switzerland -- whereever in the world where he can shout to his heart's content that GMA cheated in the elections. It doesn't matter. What matters is that he is out EDSA and out of reach from the street parliamentarians.

Ma'am read my lips: Act fast.

Sun Tzu's Advice No. 3, "Let's bring the battle to the courts"

Sun Tzu says, "Those who are skilled in warfare will always bring the enemy where they want to fight, and are not brought there by the enemy."

This crisis can be won only in the courts. GMA cannot allow it to be fought in the parliament of the streets. The sooner it is brought to the courts and moved out of the streets, the sooner that this crisis will be diffused.

On one hand, the parliament of the streets is clearly the battlegorund of GMA's enemies.This country and these people have a very strong tradition of protest that dates all the way back to the Spanish era. Like sharks in the water, 100 people protesting on the streets can be lethal. Didn't EDSA 1 start only with less than a hundred that were brought over by Butz Aquino to support the frantic Juan Ponce Enrile back in 1986? The streets are dangerous these days. GMA should make sure the enemies are swept away from them.

On the other hand, the courts are clearly the battleground for GMA. She has the best lawyers working for her. She controls the justice department, and has the pwoer to compel it's secretary to act like he were the First Family's consiglieri. After all, it is a matter of national security. Moreover, the Philippine judicial system is tailor-made for the defense. Whoever is beseiged in the court has more than an even chance to win with a bevy of good lawyers and the power of the presidency being weilded by the defense every now and then. And by the time these cases are heard, the street parliamentarians would have dozed off.

What GMA has to do now is to convince everybody to take the action to court. It's the constitutional and legal way. Ask the people to stay calm and let the legal system do its work. Find a way to make Sammy Boy bring his evidence to the courts instead of he brandishing them on primetime television with the Erap mobs. Now is the time to convince everybody that people power has reached the end of the line. In the words of Atty. Alan Paguia, the rule of law should prevail over the rule of force.

Mikey tell Mommy, the magic word is the "courts".

Sun Tzu's Advice No. 2: "Ma'am, we need detailed plans"

Sun Tzu says, "With careful and detailed planning, you can win; with careless and less detailed planning, you cannot win. How much more certain is defeat if one does not plan at all! From the way planning is done beforehand, we can predict victory or defeat."

With the intelligence network firmly in place, the next priority for the Gloriagate Crisis Team is to come up with detailed plans. Sun Tzu says to win is to be able to subject the enemy to your will. GMA should be able to dictate the endgame of this affair. But to be able to do that, she has to know where to take it.

Erap's other mistake when he lost EDSA II was he didn't know where to take the crisis. As people converged in EDSA, he thought that it was best to let them be, for after all, he had the military with him. I remember Ernie Maceda, then ambassador to the US, predicting on primetime tv that the EDSA II crowd would get tired and soon go home. He also predicted a reconciliation with Erap. Of course, the EDSA II leaders had better foresight. They knew that Angie Reyes and Orly Mercado were the swing votes, and the best argument to win over the two was the swelling crowd in EDSA. That is why it was a blunder for Erap to have allowed the EDSA crowd to grow. Today, the GMA police is doing its job right by sweeping the crowd gathering in front of San Carlos Seminary and making sure it doesn't grow. They say it is necessary to prevent traffic build up, but of course, it clearly has a double purpose.

Yet, this crisis is not going to be won only by keeping the Edsa crowd in San Carlos in check. The plan has to be detailed enough to follow on a minute by minute basis. Clearly, Samuel Ong has to be smoked out of his cave. For as long as he is able broadcast from it, he is a serious threat to GMA. Plan A should be how to neutralize him from there, and diffuse this crisis altogether. Perhaps, they can do a check on Sammy Boy. Is he a nut case? Does he have a history of hallucination? What would it take for him to shut up? Money? A position in the UN? A simple sorry? What did it take for Udong Mahusay to recant? Will it work with Sammy Baby? Whatever it is, Sammy Boy has to be contained.

Plan B is the exit plan. This is the more important plan that Erap should have done before he stepped down. Somebody should at least draft the text of the presidential pardon for the next president to sign in the remote event that GMA has to go. Nixon had one when he resigned at the end of the Watergate Scandal. And if Erap had one before he left Malacanang, instead of languishing in jail like a common criminal today, he should be enjoying his Petrus wines in his Boracay Mansion with Laarni and kids.

Two words, Ma'am: detailed plans.

Sun Tzu tells Gloria, "Intelligence is the key."

The situation after former NBI deputy director Samuel Ong came out yesterday is about to turn ugly. The EDSA tables are about to be turned against President Arroyo. She would be the center of attention for the next few days, and she better handle this crisis well or else she, husband Mike, son Mikey, and brother in law Iggy, might end up as Erap's cellmates. As Samuel Ong holes himself up in San Carlos Seminary and the FPJ and Erap crowds pounce on this catalyctic event, what would it be like to be in the Gloria crisis team? Let's imagine that Sun Tzu is alive, and he is in the head of the Gloriagate crisis team. What would he be saying? Of course, I am not a member of this team, and my purpose for this blog entry or series of blog entries is completely academic. Blog away Master Sun.

Sun Tzu says, "Know your enemy, know yourself and your victory will not be threatened. Know the terrain, know the weather and your victory will be complete."

What was Erap's worst mistake during EDSA II? He didn't check on the loyalties of his men constantly. He thought he had their loyalities all the time, especially Angie Reyes, then the AFP Chief of Staff and Orly Mercado, Erap's defense chief. He didn't know that his people were already in talks with the EDSA II leaders, and that their morale was low. It was just a matter of time then that Erap's favorite general and equally-trusted secretary of defense would turn against him in his hour of crisis. How can GMA avoid making the same mistake?

Intelligence is the key. As the crisis unfolds, the President should have all relevant information about this crisis at a touch of a button. And she should make sure that every information fed to her is reliable. In addition, remember what Tom Hagan, Vito Corleone's consiglieri in the Godfather said about bad news? The Godfather wants to hear bad news immediately. Thus, the President should tell her staff to seek adverse information and bring it up to her as soon as possible. Favorable information is okay, but it is adverse information that germinates into serious trouble. What would have happened if Erap got a tip about that meeting and was able to stop Angelo Reyes from meeting his fellow generals in that Corinthian Gardens house before Angelo Reyes and the rest of the cavalry broke away from Erap? If you're the President and you can't do a simple thing such as that, you deserve to be ousted. As in Mario Puzo's Godfather, so shall it be in this crisis. Bad news should be brought to the President's attention immediately.

Ideally, the President should have a map of the social forces in play during this crisis: the military, the church, the civil society, mass media, the local governments, the judiciary, and the legislature. Imagine a big screen with the an icon representing each social force. All those in green are hers. All those in red are enemies, and all those in white are shaky. If she has this information, every moment, then all she has to do is make sure that the screen is dominated by green. She should check their loyalties constantly. The green ones should remain green. The whites should be completely won over and turned green. And the reds, should be guarded constantly. She should make sure they don't win over the greens and the whites.

If GMA has this information on hand right now, only then can she truly claim that the situation is under control. Thus, before this whole thing elevates to a higher and more complicated level, the intelligence network of GMA should be firmly in place for her to be able know all these things all at once at any time while the crisis is ensuing. A failure of intelligence can lead to a bad decision. And bad decisions will bring defeat. Intelligence is the foundation of victory. Intelligence is the key.

Mr. Prosecutor is a Person in Your Neighborhood

He comes to court, late as usual, with two bags of folders -- the cases for the day. You wonder if he has only one barong tagalog, because you never see him wear anything else but the dark blue linen he dons day in and day out. The calendar has forty cases, and you can tell, unless he is Superman, that he is ready only for less than half of them. The rest will be reset to another day when they will be reset again until somebody complains.

The first five cases are called, Mr. Prosecutor stands, enters his appearance -"respectfully", he claims-- and asks for a resetting. You hear the gamut of excuses, why this and that witness is coming late, or is not sure of coming at all -- loose bowel movement, training in a camp far away, grandmother died. It can be amusing sometimes. Since the court has forty cases in the calendar, it might as well reset the cases. The public attorney sitting beside Mr. Prosecutor nods, and looks at the judge, "No objection, your honor" Same story, different day.

My case is called. And Mr. Prosecutor is prepared to reset. His police witness is not in court. He knows, unlike the public attorney, who understands the situation of Mr. Prosecutor, with the forty case load for the day, and the hundreds more back in his office, I will object to another resetting. The week before, I recited the provisions of the Constitution on the rights of the accused to speedy trial. Mr. Prosecutor knows I will pull the same trick again, and probably do more. What is the poor judge to do now? "The inefficiency of the State is the problem of the People. The accused should not be made to wait in jail while the State is figuring out what to do. Set him free," I argued. And today, can the poor judge take some more? Mr. Prosecutor is on the brink of defeat.

But Mr. Prosecutor is prepared to postpone. He stands up, directs the sheriff to look for the policeman outside the courtroom, and the sheriff comes back after a few minutes to say what everyone knew all along, the policeman is not there. And before I can stand and say, "I move to dismiss," he tells the court, "Your honor, I move that a warrant of arrest be issued against the policeman." And silence envelopes the court. Mr. Prosecutor has given the judge Sun Tzu's way out. Mr. Prosecutor throws me a look, smiling and knowing he will get his postponement again today. Mr. Prosecutor is the master of postponements. No use making that speech. The judge is sure to take the path of least resistance.

"Your Honor, what do we care about the policeman getting arrested? My client's been in jail for years", that's all I could say, more like a prayer really.

"Everyone on trial here has been in jail for years." Mr. Prosecutor says, like Mephistopheles speaking.

"Next week, your honor" Mr. Prosecutor asks.

"Next week?" I ask.

"Next week. Let a warrant of arrest be issued against the policeman. So ordered." The judge declares as he bangs the gavel, and the sound is drowned by the whispers of the people in the room.

And Mr. Prosecutor takes his seat, moves one folder to another pile, as if telling himself, "Six down, thirty four to go."

Who are the people in your neighborhood? Mr. Bureaucrat

"What is the most important rule in life?", Mr. Bureaucrat, a career officer in a government agency, blurted as he swang his club and sent the golf ball 200 yards away. I managed only to shrug my shoulders, not knowing that Mr. Bureacrat was about to give me his life lessons with a swing.

"Never stick your neck out for anyone," he declared as we walk towards the golf ball in the green. "You know kid, in my youth, I once facilitated a big transaction in which powers that be made a lot of money, because of my signature. I was given my share, but theirs were a lot more. And we partied like we have been friends all our lives. But things got bad when the lawsuits started coming, and I was left on my own. I paid the lawyers, I paid the fixers, I paid everybody who demanded to get paid to get my ass off the hook. And you know what? I was left on my own. My fair weather friends wouldn't even send me money for bail. I lost it all, but survived with a lesson in life. I vowed that no one is ever going to make that money on my signature, except me. " he said as we found the ball about five meters away from the second hole.

He continued,"These politicians, they come and go. They tell you they have a project, and it would be good for the country, and they have some budget for the boys, for so long as I sign on the dotted line. I've managed to dodge these proposals, not even when they brandish those legal opinions from those bastards in the legal department. Hah -- those lawyers will never go to jail for writing a stupid opinion. But people like me who made government a career will do, especially when the new politicians take over. And you know what? They have all been sued. If I have not been as careful, I would have ended up exactly as the first time. I've outlived them all in my department, and I've managed to stay away from the lawsuits. Remember this kid: Never stick your neck out for anybody." and we stopped as he aimed his putt.

"It's such a lonely world," I told myself as his golf ball rolled into the hole.

Who are the people in your neighborhood?Mr. Finance Guy

"Tell me attorney, how do you make money?" and my imagined conversation over tall bottles of wine with the finance guy takes off to a trembling start.

I replied, "I don't make money. Money is a by-product of what I do. I sit in my office, and somebody calls me for help. Sometimes I'm required to attend a hearing, draft a contract, or simply answer a question. And the money comes. Sometimes it doesn't, but I don't usually mind. God has made sure that I get a balance of those calls from the payers and the non-payers. So if you're wondering how I make money, I don't. It comes. How about you Mr. Finance Guy, how do you make money?"

And he proudly declared, "I make money on money."

I gave him the blank look, as if to ask what he meant.

He said, "People come to me because they need money. I lend them my money but they have to get back to me with my money and some more money. You want to build a house attorney? I will lend you the money to build it. But you have to come back and pay me principal plus interest, or your house is mine, so I can sell it and get back my money plus interest. Get my drift?"

I nodded. He then added, "Some people come to me, because they are starting a business, and they need money to put it up. I give them my money. But they have to promise me that they're going to make profits by running it well. If they don't, I give them hell. But usually they do. So, I don'r just get interests but dividends, sometimes I get more.I make money on money. Get it?"

"I don't like you," was all I could say.

"Does it matter ?" he asked.

"Of course not. You're the guy who pays," and we each downed another glass of wine.

An (Ex?)Activist Learns Golf

Red, my law partner, and I have decided to learn golf. This announcement will surely come as a surprise to people who once knew me as an activist of sorts, or at least, a proponent of alternative lifestyles. Whatever happened to the cause of the oppressed? But before they condemn me as a sellout to the establishment, let me tell them why I have taken this inevitable turn in my sports life.

First, I have come to realize that I will never become a basketball superstar. Thirty four years of shooting the hoops hasn’t gotten me anywhere. I have yet to win a championship in any of the leagues that I joined, not even in the neighborhood ligas in my boyhood Barangay Quirino 2-B in Quezon City. My best finish ever was fourth place overall, and it ended with me shooting and missing a couple of free throws that could have been the winning shots for my team. That’s a highlight by the way, because most of the time, I was warming the bench.

I still play basketball, most of the time with my kids in our garage. But my sons, Juancho and Hans, have gotten better at it that I end up losing in our shootouts, and get heckled at by these babies. "Tell me Tatay who's the hotshot?," they jeer me 'til bed time. Indeed, as Kobe Bryant knows by now, losing stinks. The message is clear. Basketball is going to be just a spectator sport for me. I can try jolens or I can try golf.

Second, in this country, golf is not a sport, it’s a trade. There is a story that the biggest corporate takeover in the last few years involving the acquisition of the controlling stake in PLDT, the crown jewel of the Philippine corporate world, was sealed in the golf course. And there have been countless times that golfing clients called me in the middle of their games about documents that I needed to immediately draw up to seal a transaction they closed while playing golf. There was one occasion that I had to bring documents for signing in the seventh hole, and I looked odd in my white barong and leather shoes, documents in tow, braving the heat in the middle of the green. And to golfing professionals, a deal as big as the PLDT sale is just one of many deals that can happen in a day. And you see them smiling at you as you come to the green in your business attire, deed of sale in your hand, wondering how much money you make running after golfing businessmen. You could actually hear Rod Stewart singing “Some guys have all the …”

Third, it feels good to whack a ball with a club. Try it with your broomstick and your left shoe. For the most part of my life, I have lived a non-violent life. What's the Mahatma Gandhi word ? -- ahimsa or active non-violence. Whenever confronted with over-bearing clients who think they are God’s gifts to my firm, I smile at them and bill them like they were indeed God’s gifts to my firm. I have managed to remain polite with associates who couldn't get their subjects to agree with their verbs. I have been patient with corrupt judges and continue to address them as “your honor” -- although sometimes, in my left brain the syllable “dis” is spoken allowed, as in “Your (dis)Honor.” Prosecutors, who come unprepared in hearings and ask for repeated postponements, take some heat from me, especially when my clients are languishing in jail. But at the end of each tirade, I manage to shake their hands, and tell them, it’s not their fault, but the system’s. These people deserve a whack. But my education restrains me a lot. So, you can imagine the catharsis I get whenever I whack a ball with a club, and it flies way up in the air without complaint, obedient as I have been to the “slings and arrows of outrageous” people. Imagination has its rewards.

In my mind, I still am an activist and a proponent of alternative lifestyles. Most of the causes that I fought for have been lost, some of them I believe, have been abandoned and left for me alone to carry on. I still feel for the oppressed. But age makes you a little less agile, a little less angry, a little less sad, a little more playful, a little more open to the ways of leisure, and a little more creative in your protests. And I don’t know how. But as I approach middle age, with club and ball in hand, I vow to keep the lost causes of my life. Who can possibly tell? Maybe golf can bring the championships I never won? I’d be okay, though, if at least, golf would come with the accounts that I never had -- the San Miguel takeover would be fine, thank you. But the real treat is when I hit the space between the ground and the ball, and the ball bellows as it flies up in the air with the faces of the assholes of my day.

Why I don't drive a BMW

Tom Wolfe, the great American writer, has a way of matching his characters with their cars. In his second novel "Man in Full", Tom Wolfe has the poor struggling grocery warehouse man driving a Hyundai, which he parked illegally on a sidewalk and which eventually got towed. Then the rich alpha male character Charlie is driven on a limo on his way to his private airport to fly on his private jet. Indeed, the way he makes these juxtapositions he seems to be saying, in America, you are what you drive. I am not prepared to argue with him or with this American way of putting things, for indeed, deep down in any urban professional's desires, he'd rather drive a nice blue cool BMW or SUV than an old refurbished Toyota Corolla. But I have reasons why I think in this country, I'm not going to drive a BMW for a long time, if at all.

First, I can't drive. I'm nearsighted. I'm wearing spectacles with a grade of plus 2000 on my right eye and plus 1000 on my left, and still they're not good enough. My vision deteriorated after third year law because of two subjects, Transportation Law and Succession. In those days, I used a reading lamp that may have been too bright as I went through a reading list of about 25 cases a day. My friends have suggested I have laser surgery, but I don’t approve of aggressive medical procedures unless they are urgent, especially if they involve my primary source of livelihood -- my eyes. I have also been tempted to cheat on my application for a driving license --i.e. memorizing the eye chart for the eye exams. But this is a very minor thing to get disbarred for. No way. Thus, I don't have a driver's license. I have to live with the thought, I can't drive. Besides, my wife can drive. We are happy.

Second, I can't afford a BMW. I don't have PHP 3 Million, which is the cost of one of these beauties. And even if I did, I am not going to blow PHP 3 Million on a car, even if it has that great sporty look, leather seats, a navigation system and all those little bells and whistles. Who needs that in a car? I need the PHP 3 Million more for my little alternative lawyer's project, my book project, my kid's education and a million other things more important than having a sporty looking car with leather seats. In my youth, I imagined myself many times driving a BMW and parking it in front of a restaurant as smitten prospective clients look on. I've bucked the dream with a simple solution -- being there before the clients arrive.

Third, driving a BMW could spell trouble. Several years ago, a strange case was pushed into my in tray. An expat, who drives around with a BMW, was sued by an old man before the city prosecutor for reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries. The old man's story? He was walking home in the middle of the night when this BMW passed by, hitting and throwing him to the gutter. His eyesight was good enough that he was able to jot down the car plate number of the blue BMW, which happens to be owned by my expat client. Of course, it was a pure extortion attempt. But my BMW driving expat wouldn’t want to spend a second thinking about it, so we settled for PHP 5000.

More trouble awaited another client of mine who happened to be another BMW fan, when he ran over a drunkard on Ortigas Avenue one early morning. He was a good man, so after the accident he brought the victim to a hospital and made sure the victim's relatives were informed about it. But, wonder of all wonders, after completing the task, he drove straight to the police to report the incident. Guess what? He was detained. Now, when he called us for help, I asked him what car was he driving. He said it was his BMW, and I knew immediately that there were “ten thousand reasons” why he was detained. Of course, it was only after we resolved the “ten thousand reasons” that the police let him go on the ground that there was no complainant.

Fourth, aside from trouble from extortionists, driving a BMW can also bring you trouble from your creditors. A businessman friend of mine who recently got sued for bad debts, managed to haggle his way out of the creditor's strict terms in the court room. But when they stepped out of the justice hall, the creditor saw my friend ride his BMW, and immediately the deal was off. When we got back on the negotiating table, my friend pleaded that he really had no money, and the BMW was being amortized at PHP 50,000 a month. The creditor agreed on one condition, that the creditor gets to drive the BMW home as a down payment. And my friend tearfully handed his creditor the keys to what once was his sporty looking BMW. I gave him a lift home on my old rickety Toyota Corolla to ease the heartbreak of leaving his house on a BMW and coming back on a cab.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure BMW cars are great. Who doesn't want to have class? Tom Wolfe says, you are what you drive, conspicuously or otherwise. But for the reasons above, I know in this country, where seventy percent of the people could barely afford to pay for public transportation, I will never drive a BMW, except perhaps in my dreams.

"Good Night Sweet Prince, And Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest..."

La Vida Lawyer joins the rest of the Catholic world in mourning the passing of Pope John Paul II. Pope John Paul II has served us well as the Vicar of Christ and spiritual leader of the Church in this world. He is a hero and champion of peace to the world.

Thank you Pope John Paul II for being a source of hope and inspiration for all. Go now and rest for you have served us well indeed.

Is there anybody out there who can tell me the news without selling me anything?

A few years back a giant broadcasting network prohibited its news anchors from endorsing products outside their network time. So most of the anchors, who probably made a killing endorsing canned tuna, brandy, and the like, grudgingly obliged. A popular couple left the network, moved to the rival network, and sued the old network for illegal dismissal. Last I heard, they lost the case. But I thought for a while that this entire episode in Philippine television was a triumph of ethics. Advertising is advertising, and news is news. If you have news anchors doing advertisement, it blurs the divide, and you run the risk of the public being led to believe that their product endorsements are news.

Of course, I was dead wrong. It was a triumph of network business bullies, instead. It appears that what they are doing now is worse. They are injecting advertisement directly into the news. This morning this lady reporter doing the traffic news tried to sell skin protection products while appearing to be doing a feature on traffic reporting. Before her segment went on air, the studio anchor introduced the traffic girl, and said that the reporter had something important to say. I popped up the volume a little, because I wanted to know if the number coding system was suspended today (it is). Then she went on air, telling us how she starts her report, where she stays during her Edsa Kamuning report, the difficulties in doing the traffic report, and concluded that, because of the heat, she had to use this skin protection lotion. I asked myself what the ...?

Another segment was introduced by the news anchor about a reporter who was in the bus terminal in Araneta Center Cubao, Quezon City. She started with the report on the people in the terminal and concluded with the PLDT Goldmine promo, which gave a chance for people who recruit PLDT subscribers to earn cash commissions and PHP 1 Million in a raffle. I shook my head, and decided it was time to blog this.

Last night, I was watching the early evening news of the same network, and I overheard an entire segment about what was happening in the telenovela being aired by the network. Since when has telenovela plotlines been news? Of course, that's an advertisement of the telenovela (which is probably heavy with advertisement itelf).

So indeed what might be happening now is that the network is cornering the endorsement business from the advertisers with such a clever scheme: putting the advertisement directly into the news. Too bad for the anchors, and too bad for the public.

Where is the telco price war leading us? To ruin, of course.

I had a meeting this afternoon with a friend who operates a telephone company in my home province of Mindoro. He is complaining, because the recent PLDT response to the Sun 24/7 gimmick is killing traffic to our province.

The telco price war began when John Gokongwei's Sun cellular offered a service at a flat rate for all calls within the Sun network. Apparently, the pricing scheme worked as Sun was able to entice three million subscribers -- something which took Globe and Smart longer to achieve in the early years of the cellular phone in the Philippines.

PLDT responded with a month-long promo, which introduced a flat rate of PHP 10 per call within the PLDT network nationwide, and PLDT across the SMART and Talk n Text networks. Naturally, it may have stopped the turn-over of people from Smart and Talk n Text to Sun, but the other immediate effect is to congest the PLDT lines. According to my friend, PLDT landline calls to Naujan, Mindoro are having a hard time connecting, because the PLDT Batangas exchange, where Naujan's traffic passess through, is clogged up. As a result, Naujan's residents with landlines are isolated from the country, and even the world -- because international calls to Naujan, Mindoro also pass through Batangas. According to my friend, if this continues, he may have to close his small telephone company, and watch as his subscribers switch to Smart and Talk N' Text.

The main problem with this price war is that it is really going to generate a lot of useless chatter. People are going to call each other regardless if the call is necessary to relay important information or just loose talk. Worse, as usual, we can expect more loose talk to occupy phone bandwidth, which will make it hard for inportant information to pass through our phone lines. The telebabad's will take over. As a result, we are going to ruin the greatest thing which happened to Philippine communications since the invention of the telephone. What's the use of having a cellular phone if you can't connect because people are abusing it?

I used to think that Sun's John Gokongwei and PLDT's Manny Pangilinan were in a certain class of businessmen -- the types who will not think only of short term profits but also of long term benefits to their companies and their patrons, as well. But this telco price has proven me wrong. They all appear to be in the same league as this movie producer, back in those days when she produced those stupid movies with her so-called babies that made a lot of money for her movie company, but ruined an entire generation's value system.

I wonder what are we going to ruin next?

The Five People You Meet in Heaven: A Review

When we die, we meet five people whom we might have known in life. They give us a tour of different places where we might have encountered or met them. And then, they explain to us five different memories of our lives and aid us to have our questions answered – why we lived and what we lived for. This is the fictional frame where Mitch Ablom paints the story of Eddie, an 83-year old circus maintenance man, who died in a freak accident when a cable snapped in a carnival ride called Freddy’s Free Fall, and a cart fell on Eddie as he tried to save a girl from it. More details here.

I have to admit when I read about the initial success of this book, I scoffed at it (and wrongly so) as an artistic flop. Ever since I read Da Vinci Code, I vowed never to believe that those books in the New York Times bestseller list are worth my while. But my personal encounters with the metaphysical world have got me itching to read this book for weeks, until one day, with a prospect of another business trip to Cagayan de Oro City, which left me with plenty of reading time, I decided to suspend all artistic judgment on this book, and plunge on it regardless of my past disappointments.

And this time, I was not disappointed. I have always thought of heaven myself as a place where things get explained to us about this life. Reading about Eddie and his five people brings me back memories of people I know who have died when I was too young or too busy to understand their stories. There are days, for instance, that I wished I could have coffee with my late grandfather in Starbucks, and talk about life issues and how he handled them in his time. Had he lived through this day, my grandfather, I’m sure, would have been a Starbucks regular himself. Sadly, it is not possible now, and those conversations will not happen in this life. But Five People consoles me with the thought that maybe, in the next life, that conversation over Starbucks coffee might take place. And with Five People, I could almost imagine how my encounters in heaven might be when my time comes with other friends and relatives that I have already lost.

Of course with this metaphysical premise, Five People might bring tears and wax sentimental in certain places. But never mind that. True and good literature is expected to do that once in a while. Besides, Mitch Albom’s goals are high or should I say, heavy on the sentiment, but he handles it pretty well, carefully treading on the narrow path between artistic detachment and emotion, which prevents it from being a Danielle Steele melodrama that would have caused me to throw it straight to the trash can. Indeed, Mitch Albom manages pretty well, so I'm marking this book "for keeps".

My professor on the modern novel once said in class that all artistic merits being equal, what makes a book outstanding is its vision. And this is why she said Faulkner stands taller than Hemingway. Faulkner had a vision of order and hope, while Hemingway’s vision is of stoic darkness. While Mitch Albom is not in the league of these late giants of modern literature, surely the Five People You Meet in Heaven, with its vision of hope, stands proud out there with the best that modern fiction has to offer.

Retrospective: The Eraserheads and Circus

I bought a CD of the Eraserheads' Circus album last Monday. I got my first copy of this album on tape back in the summer of 1995 when I was preparing for the bar exams. I mentioned somewhere here that my musical taste took a side trip to the classical genre in my law school days, because of the myth that baroque music enhances brain power. Thus, for the four years of law school, my daily staple was Bach's Brandenburg concertos, some Mozarts, and some Vivaldis. In the summer of 1995, I decided I was going to take a musical adventure, and try some Original Pilipino Music (OPM) with the Eraserheads.

The first time I listened to Circus, it felt like being with friends I haven't met for years. Funny thing is, I never met the Eraserheads at all. But the music that they made was the music that felt real. It was the music that members of the Voltes V generation like me had in their collective subsconcious, awaiting creative expression. And it would take Ely Buendia and the boys to unearth them from the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds. They sang about the life and struggles of college students in a manner unique to us: boredom, insomnia, semestral breaks, alcoholism, and love -- lost, unrequited, and otherwise. There was a Senate investigation on whether the song, "Alapaap" was endorsing drugs. Ely and the boys, however, claimed it was about freedom, until their erstwhile band manager, Jessica Zafra blurted that there was a line in the song that goes, "Hanggang sa Dulo ng mundo, hanggang maubos ang ubo." Wasn't that about cough syrups? The most biting song of the album is "Hey Jay", about a homosexual struggling for acceptance in the homophobic Philippines. Its bouncy upbeat and fancy guitar riffs sugarcoat the underlying story of deviants and their pains in a conservative society. I listened to it again, and have one conclusion, the Eraserheads are geniuses. The song "Kailan", especially the lounge version, will eternally be my generation's best song about unrequited love. How many times have I sung this? Same song different loves. Ha -- the story of my life, and probably the rest of us too.

I was bit of a musician myself back in high school. I learned to play the piano and guitar with the Jingle Chordbook Magazine, especially dedicated to the Beatles. I think I have bought at least five re-issues of that magazine, because I kept wearing out my copies. That's why I could recognize that the chord progression in "With a Smile" came from "Here, There and Everywhere". I made songs on the same progression myself, songs mushier than "With a Smile". Some of my compositions were being sung in school functions in San Beda High School. Nothing special though, and at no point did I imagine making a career out of my amateur musician days.

After high school, I had a choice of going to UP or the Ateneo. I chose the Ateneo, because I was forewarned that philosophy in UP was dominated by teachers from the "Philosophical Analysis" school of thought. But had I gone to UP, I know I would have shifted to film, played with a band on the side, and met up with the members of Eraserheads, who were going to college at the same time that I was.

In the Ateneo, my passion for creating music waned, because of my discovery of the wonders of poetry and fiction, and my uncanny ability for getting myself in school politics, without meaning to. Eventually, I decided to go to law school, and put aside for the meantime all artistic inclinations for the sake of a law diploma and a crack at the bar exams. Listening to Circus in the summer after graduating from law school, I felt like saying, "You guys can die now. This album is a masterpiece to last a long time. As for me I have nothing to show yet, but a medal in bootleg silver." Of course, the Eraserheads will go on writing better songs after Circus, one of which ("Ang Huling El Bimbo") even got them the MTV Music Awards for Best Asian Video.

Today, I'm listening to them again, on my way to board meetings and court hearings. And they bring me back to all those lost chapters of my life. My high school, college and law school days seem like yesterday, and they're all carried in one CD of the Eraserheads' Circus. Indeed, the power of music is in its ability to stir up our lost memories, dreams, and emotions to make us whole again. And I realize that the boy who used to write songs for school functions and dabble with poetry and fiction is the same blogger that I have become today, flirting with the creative muse once again on this corner of the world wide web.

Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke

There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must," then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.

Rilke's ten letters have been the boundless resource of creative energy and inspiration for this blogger. In times of crisis, I often go back to these passages of Rilke, and ask myself, "Must I blog?" Then I know that I'm in blogging for the long term.

KEEP THE LAWYERS OFF THE BASKETBALL COURT.

The controversy on the citizenship of Asi Taulava is turning the PBA into a big joke. I have to admit, I’ve lost interest in the PBA the very moment those so-called “Fil-Shams” started dominating the league. Might as well go for the NBA, where the world’s best are playing. The local league is only good, if it’s just local. Sure, Billy Ray Bates and Jim Hackett were fun to watch way back when they were imports, and they played as imports. But to pass off the American and Tongan outsiders as Filipinos? Come on. Is there anything else here we can do without bending the rules? My goodness, we can’t even run a decent basketball league.

My friend Atty. Egay Francisco, Asi’s lawyer, has a point when he says that only the courts have the right to strip off Asi of his alleged Filipino citizenship, not the DOJ and surely not the PBA.

But my quarrel with him is why is he pressing the PBA on this? If the PBA is not convinced that Asi is not a Filipino, that’s the PBA’s prerogative. The PBA basketball court is its private domain. If it doesn’t want Asi on it, Asi cannot play on it. Asi should go play on the side streets, basketball is always played better there. That’s where I play.

What is at stake here is the integrity of the PBA. The league should be allowed to interpret its own rules of play. For if we let the T.R.O.-totting lawyers meddle with its rules, watching PBA basketball will never be fun again. And this is what it is all about: fun. Lawyers on the basketball court? That’s not fun. That’s annoying. So Pareng Egay, please keep off the basketball court.

As for Asi, he is the only guy I know who wants to have a Filipino citizenship. Maybe he deserves one. And as a punishment for all this trouble he is giving us, once he truly gets it, he should not be allowed to lose it. Meanwhile, I’m not watching him play and disgrace the PBA with his TRO.

UPDATE:

PBA Commissioner Noli Eala has stood pat on his decision to stand by the rules of the PBA prohibiting non-Filipinos to play as Filipinos. Thus, in spite of handily winning the first game with Taulava on board, Tualava's team Talk 'n Text, forfeited Game one and thereafter refused to field Taulava on Game Two, which Talk N' Text lost. Meanwhile Atty. Francisco filed contempt charges against Noli Eala for his actions which allegedly disobeyed the TRO mandating the PBA to allow Taulava to play.

A Challenge to the New Breed

In my Special Proceedings class today, I interrupted regular programming, as it were, and spent fifteen (15) minutes of my class time to discuss the editorial of the Establishment yesterday, entitled "Judical Underworld". I've heard a lot of insults against lawyers before, but none was as biting as yesterday's editorial, which declared in one line the state of the legal profession in this country, "Our lawyers have run off with the law."

After reading the editorial yesterday, my instinctive reaction was to fight back with a blog title that goes,"Who do you think you are, you lie peddlers?" That would have been fun, but that would have missed the point. I told the class, this is the paper with the widest circulation in this country, speaking. It has the best opinion makers, and the greatest power to move people. It has sent two presidents packing. Now, it has judged our profession, and you know what? It may be right. So what are we going to do about it?

I have a theory. We could have corrupt presidents, corrupt senators, corrupt congressmen, but we should never have corrupt judges. For if our judiciary were clean, we could be sure that none of the corrupt officials would get away. We could always say, we would take them to court. But if we have a corrupt judiciary, then where could we take them? The entire system would fall. We would have chaos, lawlessness, and disorder. Everyman for himself. As if World War II did not end.

What are we going to do about it?

Red, my law partner, and I have taken on two cases against erring judges before the Court Administrator. I think that's a start. We would be doing what the big Makati law firms have been avoiding all this time, which is cross swords, as it were, with the men in robes.

Of course, I did an analysis. Assuming the judges we are prosecuting issue a death edict among their corrupt colleagues in the judiciary to ensure that we won't win any case in their salas, our office would still survive. My associate told me one judge whom I criticized for the bad writing of his law clerk already did. Our Firm, he said, would never win in Makati. I am the least worried. The damage could be contained, because we have more corporate accounts than cases. Besides, our practice has always been focused on how to help clients avoid litigation. Of course, we would get hurt. But we would take the damage for whatever its worth. Never mind if we never become a big law firm one day. In times like this, a little Sun Tzu analysis is all we need to get by.

And to my class, I left this threat. Don't you ever end up like the corrupt lawyers and judges of today, for I will have you disbarred. I don't wake up at 4:00 am every Saturday and drive all the way to Cabanatuan City just to end up teaching what the Establishment calls legal lemons. I will have you disbarred, if that is the last thing I have to do.

I hope the rest of the legal profession heeds the call.

I'm done with Twelve.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Ocean's Eleven. Never mind that it is about a robbery, and the heroes are the robbers. But the sequel "Ocean's Twelve" really put me to sleep. Roger Ebert liked it. He writes, "Now, with 'Ocean's Twelve,' (they ) are doing a jazz riff. This isn't a caper movie at all, it's an improvisation on caper themes. If at times it seems like a caper, well, as the fellow said when he got up from the piano, it might not be Beethoven, but it has a lot of the same notes."

This is one of the rare times I have to disagree with Ebert. It's like how the Filipino movie scribes justify a mess of a Regal film, the kind where they put the Regal Babies together to pack in the crowds, and the script was written at the back of cigarrette case. Fine, the allusion to a jazz riff might be an explanation. But, this is not a song. This is a movie. At the end of the film, I felt like having emerged from watching an animated film from the seventies. The figures are stick-like, shallow, and the plot is something a twelve year old would have in his mind for a home movie with an all-star cast. Really, I was waiting for the song and dance part that usually accompanied the end of a Mother Lily film in the old days. The result, a bored lawyer. Frankly, I think Hollywood has ran out of ideas. I'm going back to the classics.

Is Justice Sandoval telling us something?

Sun Tzu says,

Those who are skilled in warfare will always bring the enemy where they want to fight and are not brought there by the enemy.

There is a joke among Filipino lawyers that to win a case, you don't need to know the law, you only need to know the judge. So if you apply Sun Tzu in trial practice, the first principle is to bring the case to a judge who will make you win. And if the other side brings it to its judge, find a way to convert the judge or try to get the judge to resign.

Today, the Establishment carries the story of the resignation of Sandiganyan Justice Edilberto Sandoval, who is part of the special division trying former President Erap Estrada. It appears that Justice Sandoval is the only justice who dissented from the controverial rulings of the Court, which rulings granted Estrada special concessions while in jail, including the grant for a trip to Hongkong for a knee operation. Officially, Justice Sandoval cited health reasons for his resignation, but unofficially, the Establishment says it's because of the "flip-flopping of (his) colleagues".

I'm trying to read between the lines. Is he saying that he could not trust his colleagues anymore, and that he wouldn't want to continue lending his name to this process? Is he saying that the three-man special body is already Estrada's battleground? Is he saying that this three-man special body is disposed on letting Erap free?

Or is he saying that the division is doing its job well and that they should carry on with what they're doing -- he he he like one plus one equals three.

Well, the law is the law but Sun Tzu rules.


UPDATE: 1-12-05

The Establishment reports that the Supreme Court has rejected the resignation of Justice Sandoval, citing the fact that Sandoval did not adequately show that his medical condition will prevent him from pursuing his role as member of the special division. The story is found here.

UPDATE 1-13-05

Erap is coming home on Saturday to, ehem, lead the opposition. The story is found here. He is unfazed by threats to sanction him for violating his "hospital arrest" while in Hongkong. Ha ha ha what can they do, jail him?

UPDATE 1-14-05

Justice Sandoval said he will comply with the Supreme Court resolution rejecting his resignation from the Sandiganbayan Special Division. He also said he will submit proof that he is suffering from vertigo and asthma. Full story here. Just imagine how these justices will act when they huddle back in the chambers. I wonder what Justice Sandoval is thinking. Does he have regrets for starting this whole thing? And the fellow justices (frankly, I don't remember their names) what are they thinking?

Justice Sandoval could pretend that nothing happened, and go about his business as usual, or he could call the whole thing off and give up his robes for good. This is what I call the Sun Tzu moment, akin to that precise moment when the archer has stretched the bow to its maximum potential. The aim is good. He should release the arrow now to hit its target. If Justice Sandoval wants a lasting place in history, he should know what to do now. If he bungles it or tarries too long, he will become another Erap joke.

Think Legolas.

THE SEC IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CAP'S FAILURE

Of course, the current problem of College Assurance Plan (CAP) meeting tuition fee obligations of its planholders is largely the fault of its managers. They were too aggressive on property investments, and the MRT investment is still a losing proposition. People say CAP's actuarials failed to realize the tremendous increase in tuition fees across time, which unfortunately could not be matched by returns on sour placements.

But that's the risk every planholder should have known. I knew that from the beginning. That's why I ran away as fast as I could every time those persistent pre-need salesmen knocked on my door. And I managed to keep my money away from these people, in spite of their tactics, which at times were similar to boiler room operatins. Those who managed to land an appointment with me got an hour's doze of lawyerly cross-examination, and walked away vowing to sell nothing to me ever again.

Yet, at the end of the day, if CAP eventually shuts down (look at what happened to industry pioneer PAMANA), CAP shareholders and managers can walk away, and say, "Sorry guys, it didn't work," while their insolvency lawyers take charge. And the poor planholders will have nothing but the proverbial empty bag. Whoever said that you should save money for your child's future education and put it on pre-need plans should be shot.

Is that all there is to it? I think the accusing finger should also point to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC is the single government agency tasked to monitor and supervise CAP's operations. Why did they fail to check CAP's over exposure on the property sector? Why did they allow CAP to move its money to the MRT project? When CAP's investments didn't return with the projected numbers, why didn't the SEC do something about it?

A few years back, I noticed CAP suddenly becoming very aggressive in advertising its products. They were all over the radio, tv and print media. They even had a full page ad with the names and pictures of their directors and officers who were prominent businessmen. Some were even esteemed lawyers. Sun Tzu guy that I was, I knew CAP was in trouble. (Take a tip: when financial institutions are suddenly all over you, on the radio, tv, and newspaper with big promises, it's often a last grasp of breathe. That's the Sun Tzu principle of deception. "When you are strong, pretend to be weak. When you are weak, pretend to be strong"). Unfortunately, blogging wasn't popular then, and I could not warn any one about the possible dangers. Alas, I was right. Last year, CAP check payments for planholder tutition fees bounced. Why did the SEC allow this to happen?If it had known that CAP's investments were not kicking in, why did it allow CAP to indulge in that expensive campaign, which I surmised was initiated to generate new revenues from new planholders to allow CAP to meet maturing obligations?

CAP is run by businessmen with revenue targets to meet. They are expected to take risks. If they just got the money and put it in the bank, the whole thing would have crumbled easily. And as in all business endeavors, the bigger the risks the higher the returns. They took the risks, big and small, but they didn't pay-off. That's why the CAP managers could simply say, we did our jobs, but it didn't work. Pasensya na.

Next to CAP's Board of Directors, the only other people who could have known CAP's situation (and who had the power to prevent the fall-out) are the people in the SEC. When CAP's managers pushed, the SEC regulators were expected to pull. The SEC is the last bastion of protection for planholders. That was how the system was designed to protect the investing public from the businessmen, and the businessmen from themselves.

So who did not do their job?

People in the SEC -- YOU, yes, you, you deserve every curse from the parents of the kids whose tuition fee check payments have bounced.

Please hand in your resignations before the next pre-need company "bites the dust", as Freddie Mercury would put it.

(revised post)

Here's to RVA

One afternoon in the big firm where I used to work, I took a break from writing a pleading, and went to the pantry. As is common with all big firms, the pantry was the lawyers' haven. We had a fridge, cold water dispenser, microwave, toaster, and comfortabe dining tables and chairs. It's not much, but our pantry was where the lawyers could turn to their old selves again at the end or in the middle of a long lawyerly day. It's the place where we gossip about movie stars, and wonder whether we actually missed a career in basketball.

Ramonito V. Abarico or RVA (by tradition, lawyers call each other by their initials in law firms) was a pantry regular. He had a fellow young associate with him then, but his name escapes me now. RVA, a little overweight for his five foot four frame, had boundless energy. He was doing litigation in the firm, and was working days and nights because of a major case involving some of our bosses. He was the designated foot soldier, and he bore a big brunt of the work. But RVA knew when to relax, and that moment he was actually doing that. I noticed they were having bacon and pandesal for snacks. Nothing extra-ordinary there, except that between them they had about 400 grams of bacon. They cooked it on the microwave oven, and it smelled really good. It was soaked in its own oil (about four cups of it). It looked delicious, and the boys appeared to be enjoying it.

Flash forward to another day, same setting and time of day, but in this instance, the boys were introducing me to the wonders of Palm chili-flavored corned beef. The great thing about it? -- the chunks of beef (not minced) that it offered, and the chili flavor that makes you beg for more. I introduced it to my family, and since then, our breakfast was never the same gain.

Over these snacks, RVA and I talked about work and life strategies. He said he wanted to build a house for his young family. He had a daughter then while I still had two boys (I now have three boys and a girl). Partnership was not in our minds. It was just how to increase our take home pay. I told him I was making extra cash by referring clients to the Firm. We got fifteen percent (15%)for each referral. Not bad, if you're billing in the hundreds of thousands. He tried out the strategy for a while, and started to refer work to the firm. But he had other plans. Eventually, he moved to a firm, which reportedly paid bonuses in dollars. As for me, I decided to work for myself, and put up my own firm.

Two years ago, we visited him in his room in his new Firm. He said he was still doing litigation, and he had to travel back and forth to Mindanao. He looked as if was having a better time.

Last month, I blogged about December being the hardest month for a lawyer. Just thinking about it makes the hair at the back of my head stand. Why?
Yesterday, I got a text message that RVA died that morning from a stroke. He's barely in his 30s. I'm speculating how it might have been for RVA last month. Did he stress himself too much? Did he have too much of the holiday food? I guess, it does not really matter now.

Four months ago, I shifted to a low fat diet, lots of vegetables and fruits and only up to three ounces of lean meat a day. No bacons. No Palm chili flavored corned beef. It might be the best decision I made for now.

As for RVA, I've been thinking about him all day. He was a good lawyer -- a good man with good skills in the law. May he find peace in heaven.

(original post)

Thoughts for the New Year

My Agenda for 2005: Retire from the law practice.

That is -- if I could bag a major deal, which can ensure the education of my four kids, the youngest of which is four-month old Julian Agustin. Hah, maybe not this year, but who knows? Don't get me wrong. I am enjoying my work. And if I were to live my life again, I will make sure to repeat this detour to the legal profession. But more exciting and less strenous lives beckon -- like professional blogging and teaching, albeit low-paying. That's why I need that deal this year while I'm only hitting 35, so I can live the remainder of my years on this earth in more interesting terms. As my law professor and now Ateneo Law School Dean Atty. Cesar L. Villanueva used to say, the greatest tragedy that can happen to you in this world is to be born a baby and to die only a lawyer.

Things I'd like to see in 2005: Bloggers outscooping the Establishment

One of these days it is bound to happen. The pinoybloggers are arming themselves. They are writing better stuff in substance and form. And they have the built in advantage against the Establishment: no payolas, no envelopes, and no corrupt desk editors, how can it not happen this year?

Still hunting: The New Paradigm of Power

I mentioned it before: democracy sucks. The masses are easily fooled. From where should political power emanate? So far history has placed the X mark on the divine right of kings, the tyrants who got power from military conquests, and the politburo who wielded the communist revolution in the USSR. I am writing off democracy, but I have nothing better to replace it with. That's why I'm still hunting for the new paradigm of power. In the meantime, we all have to bear its mistakes, like Time Magazine's Man of the Year George W. Bush.

By the way, I have stopped my Time subscription two years ago. And I am not renewing for as long as they keep making this mistake over and over.

Books I'd like to see in 2005

1. Sassy Lawyer's houseonahill
2. Batjay's blog book.
3. Mona Veluz's Renaissance Girl
4. The Inquirer's book on blogs (ha ha ha for my friendly neighborhood bote dyaryo dealer)

Crisis to prepare for: the power crisis.

If you are building a house this year, make sure you allot about 160K for solar power generation. I have confirmed from friends in the power industry that it is certainly going to happen. Our government is not going to meet the power demands and pretty soon we are going to experience a similar power crisis (probably worse)that the country experienced in the early 1990s. As for me, I'm postponing the Ipod in favor of a diesel run household generator -- urg!

Happy New Year to all!