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Monday, July 07, 2003
Commentary: Peke
By GARY COVINGTON
COMMENTARY
Seen the latest Fake Nescafe sachets?
Eventually nothing escapes the determined (and imaginative) faker. At the glamour end of the trade there are the duff gold bars, Rolex watches and plastic pretending to be pearls. At the bread and butter end, fake cigarettes, pens and pencils, sporty footwear and designer clothing.
Look along any street in Davao and there’ll be a hole-in-the-wall tailoring shop. Outside hang lengths of denim fading in the sun and, these days, a spray gun and paint to slap on that trendy stripe. Inside, the tailor and his mates treadle ancient sewing machines running up pairs of Levi’s. Stacked around the walls are shoe boxes of fine detail —belt loops, copper rivets and “genuine” designer labels.
Design is not a problem; the manufacturers obligingly display enormous advertising posters all over the city. And, however much the logo owners gripe and quote the Intellectual Property Code, it cannot be denied that Davao’s small tailors provide a service —it is their industry which makes available the latest fashion to cash-strapped teenagers who haven’t the means to buy the real thing.
Cutting and shaping a different material are Davao’s sheet-metal workers who produce fake vehicles or, as the proud owners would insist, replicas.
Late at night, long after the last restaurant has closed, the city’s shopping mall car parks belong to cruising boy racers. Their machines are low slung and shiny, their booming exhausts match fancy sound systems but to really impress the girls the boys need something a little different. How about a Humvee, the American military super-jeep?
Only the seriously rich can afford a real one. Apart from the huge retail price there’s a hefty import duty. The solution? Have one built. Davao’s body-shop artisans are both skilled and ingenious; the boxy Humvee doesn’t present much of a challenge.
But maybe it’s a bit wide for some of the city’s narrow streets? OK, take an old Toyota chassis and build a scaled-down version, a mini-Humvee. Where’s the harm in that?
Not so harmless are the forgers who produce beautifully faked land title deeds. The paper is of the correct weight and color, the government seal impressive. The typed technical description is immaculate; the only inaccuracy is the name of the owner.
A visit to the plot — always unoccupied — will reveal the surveyed boundary monuments in the stated position but then the forger has done his homework; a request at the City Register of Deeds will produce a photocopy of any title.
The press frequently warns of spurious title deeds; just as frequently it reports on buyers who, having put down earnest money, never see the vendor again.
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Not here. It’s a way to make a living. |
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