Horror stories

It’s that time of year when we can indulge our inner weirdo and enjoy stories of the supernatural.

But there are other types of horror stories. One is told by Alejandra “Dading” Clemente, founder of Rajah Travel Corp., who wants to share her buyer-beware experience with the public.

Clemente has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay SB Cards Corp. P2.34 million.

The amount is payment for charges and interest compounded after Clemente’s Diner’s Club credit card was stolen from her in Kowloon, Hong Kong on Feb. 9, 1996. The pickpocket had charged $23,125.45 to the card in 11 transactions before Diner’s Club, in the morning of Feb. 12, got in touch with Clemente, a long-time client, and asked her if she was using the card.

Only then did Clemente realize that the card, which she said she rarely used, was with several other credit cards that she had reported lost when her wallet was stolen. She filed an affidavit of loss with Diner’s within hours after the company called.

In the case of my Citibank card, I once used it to pay online for a purchase from the United States. Citibank later rang me up at home to verify if I was in the Philippines, because they detected someone trying to use the card elsewhere. The card was immediately canceled and a new one was issued to me within a day. My transaction on the canceled card still pushed through and I got the goods I paid for. No one was able to use the canceled card.

In the case of Clemente, she was surprised when told by Security Diners International Corp. (now SB Cards) that she had to pay the $23,125.45.

Clemente, a lawyer, took the case to court. She lost before the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 141 in 2009 and the 10^th division of the Court of Appeals in August last year. In March this year, the Second Division of the Supreme Court affirmed the CA ruling, and the decision became final on July 9.

Her total obligation: $67,410.69, converted to P2.83 million, plus P100,000 in attorney’s fees. She received a 20 percent discount of P586,249.77 – enough to cover her own attorney’s fees.

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This being the season of the dead, it’s also a good time for the government to review operations of the insurance industry. Several large insurance companies have folded or have been placed under receivership, putting in limbo the hard-earned money of thousands of clients.

In recent years we have seen scandals involving education, pension and, yes, funeral plans. People save up for these plans, only to find out when the money is needed that the companies cannot deliver on the promised service.

Syndicated estafa is a non-bailable crime, but Congress should increase penalties for lesser offenses involving welshing on contracts. At least in my fully paid cremation plan with Lifetime Plans, a division of Pacific Plans Inc. that was placed under receivership, the company that took over, called APEC, sent me a letter advising me to check the status of my plan.

For a while it was tough to get through the lone contact number and email address provided by APEC, and I could understand why some victims of swindling turn homicidal. But after several days I got through and someone confirmed that my plan was valid and would be honored. Of course if it doesn’t happen I would no longer be around to lynch the company officials.

On the other hand, Prudential Life, also placed under receivership, did not send clients similar notices to check on their plans. The company is currently refunding those who have heard of its problems and want their money back. But the refund is being made in tranches, and not everyone will get back the entire investment.

The insurance industry is built on public trust. These cases will kill the industry.

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21 GRAMS: And this being the season of honoring the dead, I am remembering our newsroom’s latest dearly departed.

The light went out of our colleague Tony Paño’s eyes just a few weeks after he checked himself into a hospital due to severe stomach pain.

Tony was our reliable, workaholic associate editor, who would have turned 54 on Monday. We used to tease him a lot for his midlife angst.

For over a year Tony ignored symptoms of colorectal cancer. When it was finally diagnosed too late, it was painful for us to watch him rapidly deteriorate, with his eyes betraying disbelief that he was on the verge of death. Holding his hand, literally and figuratively, to give him strength was like clutching a fistful of sand; everything kept slipping away.

A video recording captured Tony’s final moment, showing him with mouth agape and eyes wide open. But you could tell that the eyes saw nothing and were just waiting for the lids to be closed; Tony was no longer there.

It’s a look that can never be duplicated  by even the best special effects wizards of cinema. I’ve seen the look several times in the eyes of dead people. It’s like looking into a black hole, an infinite space that is impossible to replace in the physical shell that is the human body.

A century ago, Massachusetts doctor Duncan MacDougall conducted tests on six patients shortly before and after death. He concluded that the average human body lost three-fourths of an ounce or 21 grams at the time of death. Experts have since debunked the study as flawed science, but there are still people who believe humans have a soul and it weighs 21 grams.

I doubt that measurements used for physical weight can apply to a soul, but this won’t stop people from believing in its existence. Many of the believers also think the soul leaves the confines of the human body every night during sleep – a state that still remains largely a mystery to scientists.

Looking at the unseeing eyes of the dead, combined with stories of people on their deathbed chatting with long-departed loved ones (Tony saw his long-dead father), can reinforce such beliefs.

In moments of bereavement, it is a comforting thought – that even as we return to dust, something in each of us lives on forever.