US: A new police state

At the rate US citizens are being sent to jail, many Americans are beginning to think their country is no longer the “land of the free” but turning into a police state. According to The Economist, one in every 100 American adults are now languishing in jail, raising the incarceration rate four times over since 1970 because of so many strange and bizarre laws that can be loosely interpreted by law enforcement agents and even judges. In 2000 for instance, four men got eight years for violating the “Lacey Act” meant to stop Americans from breaking foreign laws on hunting and fishing. The offense? They imported lobster tails using plastic bags instead of cardboard boxes – in violation of an obscure law that Honduras itself no longer imposes.

An even more outlandish case concerns a 65-year-old orchid collector who from time to time would also sell the flowers to fellow orchid lovers. Unfortunately for the senior citizen, his Latin American suppliers would occasionally be sloppy with paperwork with some documents not exactly matching the description of the orchids. An FBI agent posing as an orchid lover also ordered flowers from the old man and when some arrived without the correct papers, they charged him with lying to a federal officer. The worse part – the senior citizen was sentenced to two years and lumped in jail with drug dealers and suspected murderers – who laughed so hard when they found out the old man was put in the slammer for violating the “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.”  

Even doctors are not spared, like this pain management specialist who got slapped with a 25-year prison term for overprescribing painkillers to some cancer patients who resold the drugs in the black market. One vague law that could be subject to abuse is the so-called “honest services” statute that when taken to the extreme, could send employees to prison for going on a sick leave to watch a concert or basketball game. For centuries, America has prided itself as the “land of the free,” but at the rate it sends citizens to jail, it might as well be called the “land of bondage.”

Avalanche of offers

With business tycoon Ramon Ang’s offer of $10 billion or roughly P450 billion for PAGCOR, similar offers are reportedly pouring in from Las Vegas and Macau gambling operators for as much as $20 billion, or double the amount offered by Ramon Ang. Spy Bits sources however told us that this Malaysian group has been eyeing PAGCOR for a long time. Ang is a personal friend of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Francis Yeoh, one of the richest men in Asia. According to our sources, the Malaysian group is prepared to buy the gaming company with minimal due diligence – and ready to pay cash.

They’re smart after all

Arnold Liong, president and CEO of DraftFCB, the advertising agency of PLDT-SMART, informed us that Smart Bro actually offers the micro-sim for P999 unlimited data browsing which can work perfectly for the iPad. In addition, Arnold says the 128k sim card is also available for the Smart Buddy pre-paid and will soon be available for post-paid users like the high end Infinity subscribers. According to Arnold, while over-eager Filipinos are paying top price for the iPhone 4, he thinks it will be better to wait for the next version because it will be much cheaper and a lot more improved.

Greener than green

La Sallite Gilbert Jose wrote in reaction to Spy Bits column ‘La Salle’s aim’ – “How can you say that La Salle has no MBA school and imply that Ateneo’s is better? La Salle had an MBA program many years before Ateneo did.” This was confirmed by another Green Archer Popoy Juico who wrote that “La Salle professor Boy Perlas (dean of DLSU graduate school from 2002 to 2008) would like to correct you that De La Salle University has long had a graduate school of business since 1961.” We also received another message from Teddy Villanueva, a La Salle and AIM graduate, who informed us that AIM alumni are raising P350 million to upgrade the business school’s facilities and put it at par with international standards.

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