SOMETHING BIZARRE

Weird indeed was it! There were only two lawyers in court today! The Honorable Judge, whom Atty. Dondon fondly called as Judge Mafia (LoL) and...I, respectfully appearing for the plaintiff. The rest of the SocGen IBP 'gang' are now in Bacolod for the IBP National Convention. I already made up my mind not to join the convention a month ago...or so. I was correct, my services would be needed - hence, necessitating my presence. I went to court three times! First, to file an urgent motion I prepared only this morning (I had to do the personal service and the mailing, as well as the filing of the same personally!). Second, to appear for the hearing of the said motion at 2 p.m., and therefore, I had to go home to get my barong. And third, to find out if Judge Mafia (judge no. 3) would hear the motion, in the absence of the absent pairing judge (judge no. 2) who should have substituted the absent judge (judge no. 1) in whose sala the case was previously raffled. See how it works?!

The lesson I learned? Make sure to obtain your 72-hour TRO either on a Monday or a Tuesday, so that you would have three business days within which to secure an extension to make it a 20-day TRO. The 72-hour TRO expires after 3 days from its issuance, not from the service to the defendant. Although it can be argued that when the last day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, you have until the next business day to ask for the extension, still, you must have lost already the two days when you could have asked for the said extension; hence, your chance is rendered slim and there is always the danger of losing that chance. I'm reminded of that principle in Corporation Law that if the corporation has already been dissolved by the expiration of its corporate life, there is nothing more to be extended. You cannot resurrect the dead. Can you? :)

WATCHMEN

I'm still trying to convince myself that somehow, I enjoyed watching Watchmen. That when I fell asleep inside the cinema, that was because of the exhaustion brought about by the day's (and night's) work congestion or because of its kilometric runtime - 2 hours and 55 minutes! I am still trying to recall the scenes that might have been captured by my then less discerning mind.

...Until I asked: Who were those characters again? ...of the olden times? Well, I could recall The Commedian, who was murdered at home; Dr. Manhattan, whom one review described as a "towering blue radiation mutant who's a lonely ironic humanoid", Nite Owl, whose costume is nice but I'd rather have another actor for the role (hehe! that's me...you would know why should you watch!) and sexy-wholesome Silk Spectre (there's the clue! LoL!). Boring? No, Watchmen isn't boring, but as Owen Gleiberman would correctly put it, it is just a fragmented sci-fi doomsday noir; it remains as detached from the viewer as it is from the zeitgeist. (What?!)

P.S. :

Noir refers to a film genre that offers dark or fatalistic interpretations of reality. The term is applied to U.S. films of the late 1940s and early '50s that often portrayed a seamy or criminal underworld and cynical characters. The films were noted for their use of stark, expressionistic lighting and stylized camera work, often employed in urban settings.

The word zeitgeist (a German word) describes the intellectual, cultural, ethical and political climate, ambience and morals of an era or also a trend.

THE INTERNATIONAL (A Large-Scale Banking Scandal Story)

I've just watched The International, this time (and for the first time), with my sister!

It's about an Interpol Agent named Louis Salinger and a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney named Eleanor Whitman, who are determined to bring to justice one of the world's most powerful banks (IBBC), after uncovering myriad and reprehensible illegal activities. Salinger and Whitman would follow the money from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul. This movie is said to have been based on the story of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a major international bank founded in Karachi, Pakistan in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a leading Pakistani financier. The company was registered in Luxembourg. At its peak, it operated in 78 countries, had over 400 branches, and had assets in excess of US$ 20 billion making it the 7th largest private bank in the world by assets. Through a global network of branches and subsidiaries, the bank defrauded investors and conducted illegal transactions around the world. Even cartoonists portrayed the BCCI as an evil octopus embracing the globe; wits nicknamed it the Bank of Crooks and Criminals. This reminds me of the Anti-Money Laudering Law. Well, just watch it...It's a nice movie...:) If you want, you can click HERE for the trailer.