PHILIPPINE VOYAGER

Congratulations to  President Barack H. Obama on his inauguration on January 20, 2009 to become the  44th president of the United States of America.  May he find the courage, strength, and wisdom to lead all Americans to work together to bring back peace and prosperity to the nation and the  rest of the world.   As the first black president of the most powerful country in the world,  he’s proven that nothing in this life is unattainable if you really believe in what you’re doing and work hard at it. [Written by Julius P. Bantigue]

I usually do not write about religion but the economic hardship and conflicts or wars around us are quite disturbing to me. Proceeding from the point of scholarly inquiry for the truth I departed from the usual parameters such as politics, racial biases, and “religious conflicts” as typified by the “Clash of Civilizations” authored by Samuel Huntington and another book of Bernard Lewis entitled “The Roots of Muslim Rage”. In both treatises, it treats the conflicts as between the House of Islam and the House of Unbelief or the House of War (Lewis’ book) and firstly the Catholics sect and later on the Protestant sect.

I chose to look in the Bible for answers. Yes, it was there in a simple statement:

“For the LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL which while some coveted after, THEY HAVE ERRED FROM THE FAITH, and PIERCED THEMSELVES THROUGH WITH MANY SORROWS. (1Timothy, 6:1)”.

No racial biases, politics or religious conflicts involved. Just plain old greed that is intrinsically evil coming from Satan, the father of all lies and the author of it all.

From this love of money arose two effects, 1) erring in the faith, and 2) piercing those who love money with many sorrows. Of course the faith mentioned here is the kind religion practiced by these purveyors of greed. They cover themselves with so many unbiblical lies in order to profit from religion some which are “once saved always saved”; “only Jesus saves”, “prosperity gospel”; the “oneness movement” whose belief is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the same”, the “Trinitarians”, and “Jesus was never a God, he was born a man, died a man and will return to earth a man” the last a home-grown Filipino sect, to name a few. Some turn a blind eye to divorce, most or all of them defeat the discipline in the Bible by creating their own interpretation to suit their greedy purpose and arrogating to themselves titles like “angel from the far east”, “worm of Jacob”, “son of God” or the infamous “substitute of the son of God” or the term “Vicarius Filii Dei”. But is not surprising anyway as it was already predicted by the Prophet Isaiah when he described them in this manner:

“Yes, they are GREEDY DOGS which can never have enough and they are SHEPHERDS that CANNOT UNDERSTAND, THEY ALL LOOK TO THEIR OWN WAY, EVERY ONE FOR HIS OWN GAIN, from his quarter. (Isaiah 56:11)”.

Corollary the Apostle Peter also said:

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter, 1:20-21)’.

Now comes the relevance of the Bible in understanding all that is happening around us We can safely state that Satan works through the greed in the hearts of men; that being greedy they seek and they find greedy pastors after their own heart who would bless and condone their actions for a fee, and what they will reap are what we are witnessing now, pestilence, drought, economic debacles, killings and pogroms, drugs, insolent children, irresponsible parents, adultery, debauchery, devil-worship or discipleship and every violation of the Message of Christ.

I took this opportunity to point out what, in my humble opinion, is the cause of the current economic hardships, one of the sorrows in the Bible. It is the lack of morality in business known for its dog-eat-dog system notwithstanding their flashy titles of Masters or Doctors of Business Administration. Greed overrode all that and wiped out the wealth of honest, hard-working Americans.

I say that the moral values of key people involved in the biggest scam in American history has and their pastors. QUESTION 1. Who are their pastors and their churches? ANSWER 1. The greedy dogs and most likely and their church is not the one mentioned in the Bible. QUESTION 2. What or how do these “greedy dogs” interpret the Bible? ANSWER 2. According to the wishes of what their audience would like to hear and their own private interpretations appealing to their basic instinct of greed. QUESTION 3. How can you tell if the pastor and his interpretations of the Bible are trustworthy? ANSWER 3. His answers must be from the Bible and he must be from the Church mentioned in the Scriptures (1 Timothy 3:15) because that is the place where God has placed His and His Son’s Name.

I strongly suggest that readers who are eager to expand and deepen their knowledge of the Bible to go to the website www.theoldpath.tv and listen to the discourses about the Bible as his service to God and fellowmen from Brother Eliseo Soriano.

My next dissertation will be about wars and the roots of wars. And the Bible tells us who. A hint, it’s the same ole’ “greedy dogs” again being the culprits and my role is how they use the Bible to justify their wars. [Written by Deo Quiogue]

It used to be that Marketing was thought of the field of moving goods and services to consumers. Its scope expanded when it was developed to Plan for securing sources of talents (for a service industry) and raw/intermediate material to keep the business cogs and wheels rolling. Another facet of marketing has emerged, the marketing of Ideas. As a Marketing graduate of a Business School in Manila, Philippines I used my Marketing knowledge not to sell goods or services but to sell Ideas to my clients’ Target Market, the Legal System.

Working as an Independent Tax Consultant in the Philippines before I left for the USA, my specialization was to take on seemingly “Losing Tax Cases”, or cases without an iota of “winnability”, pardon the jargon. The best way to approach and “win” a case is to do a Market Research, or simply study the arguments and position of each litigant especially the opposition side. In my experience these are the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Customs or any Offices of Government that has power to hold administrative hearings.

In studying the position of a client, start reviewing the evidence to get a good grasp of the facts. An interview of the company personnel involved can help form an honest opinion of the chances of winning or losing the case. You can then posit a course of action on how to approach the portion of the case that falls under either “contestable or non-contestable” in Court. An excellent grasp of Research Methods whether in Law or Business helps minimize time expended.

Once the non-contestable has been administratively disposed, the remaining contestable items must be organized in a way that the exculpatory provisions of the law will apply once the case is tried. The case presentation methods I have used are 1). Be a better storyteller; 2). Present your evidence closely hewing to the storyboard or to the exculpatory provisions of the law; 3). Lastly demolish your opponent’s arguments by merging all your evidence and legal arguments to show the client followed the law. The last portion is quite important since we want to avoid allegations of fraud.

In being the Better Storyteller, the chronology of events helps the credibility of the case. Organize the statement of facts along that line first and see where the evidence can support the facts. Dovetail the evidence into the facts that you have written and present the probative value as you go along. Probative value means cogent relevance of the evidence to the case at hand. Sometimes an interpretation of the real or object evidence necessitate expert opinion.

By presenting the story in a manner that gives it more credibility, the legal reasons takes center stage because the judge will tie the evidence to the provisions of law presented by both parties. Be sure to point all details because the review of the evidence is the crux of the case. In one case I won for a multinational client, I pointed out in the memorandum summarizing the case that the provision on “when an importation is deemed consummated” which I relied on calls for two step acts. First the act of paying the fees to release the importation from Customs custody and secondly, the act of granting the release documents to complete the process. I pointed out that the legal process of importation was not completed because the subsequent act necessary to terminate it was not done, so therefore the fees paid was deemed by the Court of Tax Appeals to be refundable. That clinched the case for my client.

Paying attention to detail always mean winning a case for your clients. It gives you an edge of excellence every time. Thus marketing of winning ideas is primarily being the better storyteller in every case. Do organize the facts, do your research and be ready to win. [Written by Deo Quiogue]