Bilibid or not!

This one is for Ripley’s. Our chief jailer said last month that our prisons will soon undergo reformation and rehabilitation through a new office that has been created to update laws and policies governing the prison system. He mentioned that a special research team will spearhead this with the goals of lobbying for the improvement of living conditions for prison guards, hiring of additional personnel and modernization of the prison system. Two weeks later, the top Eye-spy spotted him in the elevator of an Ayala Avenue building. The jailer was allegedly on his way to consult with a former top Justice official in the Erap Administration whose brother has an insurance office in the same building. It looks like jail welfare has become a bipartisan effort. Bilibid or not!

US to deport Captain Hooks

Here’s a warning to Pinoys traveling to the US: Don’t bring in pirated copies of anything, be they books, review materials, CDs and VCDs if you don’t want to be deported. Our Diplomatic Eye-Spy revealed that the US Embassy warden disclosed a travel advisory stating that the American Association of Publishers has alerted American Customs officers to check out for pirated books. Nursing graduates planning to take the NCLEX and CGF exams in the US were also advised not to bring in pirated copies of review books, or else face automatic deportation for violating intellectual property rights. The US Embassy had earlier cautioned Pinoys traveling to the US to be careful of "padalas" or pasalubongs containing fake VCDs or DVDs. The advisory further said that a search on the bag of a Filipino entering the US yielded around 80 compact discs, 40 DVD jackets and about 20 DVDs. The offender’s visa was cancelled and he was immediately deported, one-way ticket to the slammer. Captain Hooks from a Pacific Never Never-Land aren’t welcome in America.

Whodunit? at the Equitable PCI board

Our GSIS Spy-ring reported that two of the institution’s senior officials nominated Carlitos Barena to replace retired Judge Teodoro Regina to represent the GSIS block of shares at the board of Equitable PCI Bank. Spybiz sources revealed that Mr. Barena’s nomination has been cleared and endorsed by the Palace. At a recent board meeting, a certain Antonio Basilio was suddenly nominated to the board which caught the other board members by surprise. A lot of questions need to be answered: Who is this Mr. Basilio? Where is Mr. Basilio connected? Where does Mr. Basilio hold office? Who could be backing Mr. Basilio and, at the same time, have the nerve to go against the Palace nominee? Could this be a prelude to some dubious deal detrimental to the GSIS?

Olympics bore Indonesians

While our country did a last minute scramble to have the Athens Olympics broadcast over at NBN, it seems Indonesians couldn’t care less if the games are broadcast or not. That’s because nothing bores Indonesians more than the Olympic games, says a report in The Age. Indonesia sent 39 delegates, but no one will watch them in Indonesia because no network wanted to shell out $1.4 million for the broadcast rights. RCTI, the private network that broadcast the games in Sydney, lost around Aus$800,000, and they’re not about to repeat it. It’s not that the Indonesians do not like sports. In fact, last month half the country was late for work because they watched the overnight telecasts of the European Cup soccer, which they consider a "real sport," unlike weightlifting and the like where people have to watch one athlete after another. By the time you see the final result, the Indonesian viewers would have changed channels, says RCTI’s sports manager.

Spy tidbiz: Questions a mile-long

While Victoria Cachupoy has been hysterically screaming about mere SEC reportorial requirements through his colon, people seem to have forgotten the more serious question raised by the Random Jottings column of Today last Aug. 2 about the paper, "which got the first big behest loan of the post-Marcos era – some P28 million from Philippine National Bank – was it ever repaid? – we would be leery of wring about loans. And we haven’t even started on Mile-Long." In this period of government austerity, it would be advisable for the government to fearlessly view these issues – which Hysterical Victoria conveniently avoided – in order to get some balanced answers on questions that are a mile-long. Of course, you can’t expect that from one afflicted with the hysterical syndrome virus.

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