Monday, June 30, 2008 Pangan: Animus lucrandi By Benjie R. Pangan At Close Range
IN LAW, animus lucrandi denotes intent to gain, as when a person takes away a thing of value not belonging to him and then may sell it or appropriate and convert it for his personal benefit, advantage or gain. Animus lucrandi is one element that is appreciated in determining the commission of the offense of Theft. You may ask prominent lawyers Jojo Rivera and Reydon Canlas about this.
In business, the definition takes a bigger scope as business practitioners gain more for their advantage, and less for the customers and clients who, most often than not, are shortchanged by substandard products and services. Guidelines are bent and twisted to suit the needs of the traders. By its connotation only, animus lucrandi is not that bad; it is in its implementation or application that it may turn sour, malevolent or outright bad.
In other undertakings, the more privileged ones get the better bargains, the lesser mortals get the crumbs, if they get anything at all. I will proceed to illustrate this disparity. Where can we categorize the oil producers and exporters who have nothing in their minds and agenda but to amass wealth and huge profits daily while oil-dependents like the Philippines sink deeper in debt and misery?
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At the National Statistics Office (NSO) which has three separate offices: one at Vibal Building, Edsa, another in East Avenue, both in Quezon City and still another in Sta. Mesa, Manila, an applicant for a basic document, be it birth, death or marriage certificate, must endure long hours of uncertainty and inconvenience and, in some cases, repeated visits at these poorly-maintained offices in order to get his request and not after suffering so much from the heat (especially the older applicants), exhaustion, unsmiling clerks and arrogant guards in any of the three offices I mentioned. Fixers abound at the EDSA office and may be even at East Avenue or Sta. Mesa, but the thing is, the public do not deserve shabby treatment from the main repository of public documents on citizens' civil status and circumstances. After all, the new rates for the documents are now being imposed and, if one wishes, he may just go to a counter which promises to deliver the requested document right down to the doorstep for a fee of P300.
I did not see a copying machine inside the East Avenue or Edsa office. One has to go out of the building and run to the nearby bakeshop to have his documents photocopied and rush back to the long line. Imagine the expenses entailed in pursuit of just one document especially so in case of those coming from Apayao, La Union and Baguio in the north and as far as Saranggani in the south. Whew! I did suggest that one building may be used to accommodate all the three offices to provide comfort and convenience to thousands of NSO's clients. This way, long lines like those seen at the DFA and NFA may be removed or at least lessened.
Aside from the archaic system and procedures in place at the NSO, including its regional offices, and that includes one in the City of San Fernando, modern technology should be adapted in this very important office of the National Government. Why, there might not even be a microfilming section to preserve records and allow retrieval in case of fire or natural wear-and-tear of the paper documents. Finally, why is there an urgent need for authentication of documents? Do not other agencies like the DFA believe on the genuineness of, say, birth certificates issued by, say again, the Local Civil Registrars of Mabalacat and Macabebe? Hmmm.
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Countdown on Mabalacat Cityhood. By next month, I suppose, the good congressman of the first district of Pampanga, the honorable Carmelo "Tarzan" F. Lazatin, may have filed House Bill No. 3215 in order to start the ball rolling for the cityhood drive of Mabalacat. Anxiously waiting at the wings, but silently prodding his kumpadre is the hardworking Mayor Boking Morales. If and when the bill is passed, only the good congressman can know.
Give it to Jun Magbalot for his "solomonic" intervention in the latest brouhaha involving amateur (?) basketball league showdown in Mabalacat. Prior to the tournament proper, may I ask, are not the basketball players screened as to their eligibility to join the otherwise amateur type of basketbrawl, err, basketball? Just asking.
