public math

My new job is going to be a virtual well spring of blog entries. If only to vent all this pent-up frustration.

Overheard from a legislative committee. A government share of 65% is more than the government share of 100%. My goodness. My four-year-old godson could do better.

Given it takes some inference to come up with that simply brilliant deduction, I am beginning to rethink my stand on requiring at least a college dergee for our elected officials. After all, the Civil Service requires eligibility.

I know it may be interpreted as a form of discrimination but education has always been our priority as a culture. Why not formalize that tenet in our leaders? Perhaps when we have elected officials who can think more for themselves we would not be so behind the Asian tigers. Where, of late, most of our gifted professionals are being forced to flee from this travesty.

sins of the mother

The innocent are always the first to suffer.

I suppose you could consider this a continuation of my previous entry. There is a dilemma in filing charges of adultery against your wife. How will this affect your children?

Despite my work as lawyer, soldier and sometime teacher to police, I have never really gone to a prison. But if the detention cells in city hall or holding cells in the precinct are any indication, even grown men are wary of being within reach of the prisoners.

I cannot even imagine the stigma a child will bear that their mother is to be hailed as a criminal. Perhaps it is not as bad if you live in an environment that tolerated that. But adultery is a "white-collar" crime. The fact that ill reputation follows the charge exacerbates the situation.

Yet what is the alternative? Have your children share your worldly goods you worked sweat, blood and tears for with the embodiment of your wife's treachery? Certainly there are alternatives but in the meantime, each step taken is torture for the children.

There is no relief for the victims of these acts of selfishness. Children cannot choose their parents. They cannot even divorce them in this jurisdiction, much less disinherit them. After all, who will stand for them? Not even the State. These crimes are best left in the dark in this society. Sadly, that is where the children will have to stay for a huge part of their lives.

cuckoo in the nest

For those who aren't familiar with the cuckoo bird, the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nest of other birds of a different specie. The nest-owner then gets the impression that the egg and the hatchling is its own young and treats it as such, divesting the cuckoo of responsibility of rearing its chick.

Taken as a whole, Family law is quite peculiar. For instance, an adultress cannot claim that her child was fathered by a man other than her husband. Even if in fact the baby is her paramour's. That goes for anyone including her wronged husband. He cannot repudiate the child as not his own.

Moreover, as long as a couple is legally married, the children born of the wife is automatically the husband's legitimate child. This holds true even if the husband is sick (short of incapacitated to sire a child) or separated by great distance.

For example, if a poor OFW (overseas Filipino worker) is gone for five or seven years from his wife and returns to discover that she has a baby in the time he was absent, that child is still, in the eyes of the law, his. Even if it was impossible for him to impregnate her.

The same is true even if the couple is separated de facto. The law doesn't care how many boyfriends or girlfriends the parties have. The child delivered by the wife is still the husband's.

It actually gets worse. Our law follows the model of legitimes. In short, heirs cannot be precluded from inheriting unless for cause that has to be brought before a court. Considering the baby cuckoo is, for all intents and purposes, a legitimate child, he cannot be excluded from inheriting from the poor husband even if he is not his father.

Not even science can come to the rescue so forget CSI. The Philippines, to date, still does not acknowledge DNA as a means to determine paternity. Simply because the technology prevalent in the country today is only molecular, not nuclear, DNA testing.

So, guys, be very smart when you pick a wife. She's got the game rigged in her favor.

the dying Maria Clara

For reference, Maria Clara is (or was) the pinnacle of being Filipina. Beautiful, soft-spoken, demure, quietly intelligent, religious, obedient and thoroughly conservative. She was the tragic heroine in the national hero Jose Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere. Of course, the piece was written in the late 1880s thus the mores of the time were prominent.

And it is with this mindset the Criminal and Civil laws of the nation was drafted in the 1950s. I still think they are well-written statutes. Mostly because I can argue either side well enough. Only that the resultant cultural hang-over is quite problematic.

For one thing, my seniors, who were born at about the time these laws were drafted, are perpetually shocked with the behavior Generation Y exhibits. Heck, I am appalled for that matter. But then again, I have been characterized as Maria Clara with a broad sword.

Let me try to elucidate. I have given advice to a Japayuki family. Meaning a familial unit who made their fortune by sending their underage daughter to Japan "to entertain." And J was very entertaining. She had a high-powered, rich old Japanese danna (husband, but not really) giving her everything she, or anyone else she was remotely connected to, asked for. J had a boyfriend on the side as well. So, when the danna followed her here, it was a mess. The danna beat her and threatened to take some pivotal things back. They threatened child abuse. As if they never abetted it.

Or a woman who was the proverbial "village bike" claiming harassment. Only that she had been "harassed" before with more severity and she never reported that. N never displayed the demeanor of a victimized woman. Her partners were thick with her alleged harassers. The evident motive for the complaint was revenge. Given the kind of relationships she had, it was difficult to determine whether or not it was retribution or harassment.

Now, Maria Clara would never be sent even across the street without a chaperone. She would value her pristine reputation above all else. Her family would protect her from any smear of disgrace.

I hear it's the fad for colegialas to strip while they dance on the ledge in night clubs. Demented families practically sell their children to abusers for a "better" life. Chastity among the young is at times ridiculed like a handicap. Sexual activity in college kids is prevalent. So are jaded single mothers.

As a girl whose friends are mostly male, I find myself working at a disadvantage protecting them from threats from women who will cry wolf. And the scary part is that the law is on their side. The law which will not see their charges are trumped up and false because it is uncomprehensible for a Filipina to put her reputation at stake in this manner.

The Filipina they have in mind is Maria Clara and she has been dead for over a century.

sweat shop

And they say the public sector is unredeemingly filthy... I say private is even worse given the circumstances.

In the duration of my current stint as a de facto headhunter, I discovered a deplorable practice currently implemented by call center A. They're closing down one of their sites right now, laying off no less than 500 people in a team since they lost a contract.

The sick thing is, they're not absorbing their own people. But they're continuing their recruitment efforts. It's a simple cost-benefit analysis that comes down to it's cheaper to hire fresh meat than retraining their current workforce.

Um, is it just me or are they spoiling for a class suit in court? Too bad it's unlikely the unfortunate employees will do so. Either they don't know any better or are simply scrambling to make ends meet.

On the good side, there are many call centers (including the offending organization) that are continuously recruiting. Including my fiance's. So if any of you guys (you know who you are) happen to stumble across this page, drop me a line. There's twice the number of vacancies and more I can direct you to.

mother's liability

Let me clarify this early in the blog that this is a running commentary on mostly Philippine law through the eyes of a practicing female lawyer. The title is purely homage to my mythological roots and belief in exemplars.

We're in the zeroes and equal-opportunity employment is a truism. Not.

My niece is a single mom. She has a beautiful, bouncing baby girl who she has to hide from all her work-related aquaintances because she may risk getting fired. I can give you a litany of the laws the organization is breaking with this kind of policy. And l know it's an employer's job market.

The reality is, there really is no way to police discrimination in hiring. It is management prerogative. And those who are discriminated against rarely have the means and inclination to complain. Not to mention the difficulty in proving these practices. Those who have less in life should have more in law. True, but it is simply easier said than done.

Especially in this economic climate. I have a niece-in-law (pardon all the convoluted familial relations, it's a Filipino quirk) who works as a contractual in a factory. Where her pay reflects deductions for taxes, social security, etc. when she doesn't have any tax identification number, social security number, etc. She has to pretend to be a single woman too despite her darling son and daughter.

In six months, she has to change her name and reapply for the same job. Just like most of the other workers. It's such a tragic farce. You can't honestly believe this can go on without management's knowledge. And yes, life for the common people is this difficult.

I have half a mind to have a tet a tet with the company's owner. He happens to be my classmate in my executive track MBA. But my hands are tied. These people are content with their lot. I cannot complain for them since they voice no complaints. The best I can do is tell my nephew that in the event she ever gets in trouble, she has leverage like she wouldn't believe. I trust them enough not to abuse that latent power.

Who is Astraea?

Astraea is the goddess of justice. She is the woman blindfolded holding the sword (a little know symbol for justice) and scales that graces many of our tribunals. Each is her pagan temple.
More accurately, she is portrayed with a sword (righteous justice) and wings (swiftness). Sometimes, even in battle-armor. (I suppose she's not as docile as some of the Greco-Roman art depicts).

She is also the woman often portrayed with wings and a sheaf of wheat in the astrological sign of Virgo, the virgin. She is astra is the maxim "Ad astra per aspera", the star symbolizing excellence that people aspire for. She is a star-goddess, not unlike Varda (Elbereth) in the stories of Tolkien.