‘Dangerous’ legal knowledge

There’s an unwritten rule among credit card companies to reject – unless they can’t help it – the applications of lawyers. You see, lawyers know the law and can use that knowledge to make life difficult for credit card companies out to collect their pound of flesh from cardholders.

An example of "dangerous" legal knowledge?

Estafa is no longer a criminal (but just a civil) act. That means a cardholder who does not pay his bills on time cannot go to jail. He can just be persuaded to pay for other reasons such as, well, not being able to ever take out a loan from the commercial bank which issues the credit card.

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Did you know 1: Directors of both the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System have fixed terms of six years, which means that the terms of these men and women who were placed by former President Estrada end middle of this year.

Directors of other less lucrative government financial institutions serve for a year, unless they are nominated again by whoever lives in Malacañang.

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Did you know 2: Negros hold the Philippine record for drinking the most cups of coffee at an average of four a day. Negrenses like their coffee strong and, of course, loaded with sugar.

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Did you know 3: It looks like Doughnuts People Inc., which is behind the phenomenal Go Nuts Donuts store at The Fort (where you line up for 30 minutes and wait for another 30 minutes to get your order), is gearing up for expansion.

Why, president Michael Trillana is said to be scouting around for store supervisors and HR administrators (read: plural form).

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Did you know 3: Land Bank of the Philippines president Margarito Teves is right now in Vietnam.

No, Gary Teves isn’t putting up a remittance center there; he’s attending one of those regional conferences on agriculture.

Under Mr. Teves, Landbank has opted to concentrate on strengthening its local branch network. In short, the bank isn’t interested in putting up more remittance centers.

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As part of its 11th anniversary celebration the first week of July, the Bangko Sentral is coming up with a couple of coffee table books, one of which on its collection of gold coins.

As everybody knows, the Bangko Sentral was created when the Central Bank Act of 1949 was amended to redefine the primary function of the central monetary authority. Under the new charter, the main job of the Bangko Sentral is to ensure price stability, not to defend the peso.

To date, there have been only two Bangko Sentral governors, each of whom serve a six-year term. The first one was Gabriel Singson. The second one current governor, Rafael Buenaventura – will finish his term next year.