A Business Graduate's Reviewing History Blog

Let me make a point that I'm not a lawyer. If you want legal advice, kindly go to any qualified lawyer. I'm just blogging an ongoing frustration . I might be a man but I think the way the Philippine law defines adultery and concubinage, is rather convoluted . I remember being in PolSci class at the University of San Carlos  during Summer ofo 2003. It's been long but I thought about writing the adultery and concubinage law here in the Philippines.  I referred over to the Respicio & Co. law office for more details, to see where it got wrong : 1. Adultery 1.1 Legal Basis Article 333 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) defines and penalizes adultery. 1.2 Definition of Adultery 1. Who can commit adultery? A married woman who engages in sexual intercourse with a man not her husband. The man (paramour) who has sexual intercourse with a married woman, knowing her to be married. 2. Essence of the Offense The act that constitutes adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a ma...

TV Worth Watching The Regional Trial Court hearing in the Chiong Sisters Case concluded on May 5, 1999 . It makes me feel strange that I knew some people who personally knew the star suspect,  Francisco Juan G. Larrañaga,  and even the Chiong Sisters. One of my friends, as I said, I will not mention names to protect their privacy. Back on June 7, 1998, the Chiong Sisters,  namely the late Marijoy Jimenea Chiong and her older sister, Jacqueline Jimenea Chiong, went missing. Two days later, a body that was assumed to be Marijoy was found in Carcar . However, the defense later disputed the body. Sadly, the body has been cremated, which means any chances of verifying its identity may no longer be possible.  I didn't mind the case too much until someone told me, "Do you still remember Paco Larrañaga? He's innocent!" It blew my mind to know that Hubert Webb was innocent, and so was Paco? What? That one truly caught my mind. I feel like revisiting the case. I watched the co...

Today is the fifth death anniversary of Federico "Toto" Natividad. I didn't want to give him too much attention. However, watching Give Up Tomorrow   reminded me of Butakal , a film released in 1999 that was effectively in limbo. The film was downright not wholesome,  and accessing it requires extreme discretion like any R-rated film. The film remains banned from public screening. It seems he was content to let the film "go unscreened" if Case Unclosed's episode on the Chiong Sisters came out a year after the Supreme Court's final decision on his film. I was only able to see the film uploaded on YouTube, and it's no longer available . Natividad's film didn't advertise itself as the "Chiong Sisters Story". The story was pure fiction  based on Davidson Rusia's testimony . The movie may have been a poke at the popular public opinion at that time, that the Chiong 7 were already guilty before they were proven guilty. It turned out t...

Al Jazeera Today is March 30, 2026. It has been 15 years since the execution of the three drug mules. Their names are Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, Ramon Credo (who was cremated in China shortly after his execution), and Elizabeth Batain (whose face was never revealed, perhaps due to the loved ones requesting more privacy). Contrary to what one might think, the three drug mules weren't a trio. Instead, they were three separate cases that just happened to be scheduled to die on the same day.  They weren't a trio. They had a temporary reprieve when  former vice president Jejomar Binay tried to save them . Villanueva, together with Ramon Credo and Elizabeth Batain, was scheduled to be executed last month but got a reprieve after Vice President Jejomar Binay traveled to China and personally appealed to Chinese authorities. BBC   News even gave such a short news report, that I felt compelled to copy/paste the whole time as a reference here: Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Bin...

Flor Contemplacion has been dead for more than a decade. However, we still have had 30 years of Flor Contemplacion Crybabies spreading fake news about her "innocence" . The sentiment was pretty much that Flor was innocent, there was some hatred for Singapore going on, and the narrative was that Flor was a saint. I thought about this torture scene (not available in the free edition  on VIVA Films' YouTube channel), but it's available if you either rent or buy the film on YouTube Movies. It's probably because of the Terms and Conditions that YouTube allows for free-for-all movies. You can rent the movie for PHP 180.00 (SD) if you don't want to own the film, but want to see the uncut experience. It's still that clear despite being SD.  For some indicators, if you want to see the paid  movie vs. the free movie, here are some differences between the free movie from VIVA Films vs. the paid version: 1:27:01 timemark (free movie) is also found in 1:27:01--1:27:02 ...

Would you still want to hate to follow rules? Well, it's time to think about the tragic loss of Kingston Ralph Ko Cheng , who lost his life because someone in the road didn't want to follow simple guidelines. It was two days ago when, suddenly, Kington's life was taken away from him. It was difficult for me to process what happened. I would like to share my thoughts of this reckless incident of what happens when laws are ignored. Either you become the victim (for not following rules) or you end up someone who follows rules (like what happened to Kingston). Here's something I found on Facebook : The Price of Paper Laws   Kingston Ralph Ko Cheng was 23. A Monash university graduate, a talented musician, and a café owner, he moved back to Cebu to build a life. That life ended on a pedestrian crossing near his home.   A speeding Toyota Innova hit him with such force it threw his body into a utility pole. The driver, 21-year-old Sean Andrew Pajarillo, had already hit a parke...

PHOTO: US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY   Who can remember Amos Yee, that brat who badmouthed the late Lee Kuan Yew? It's been 10 years and several months since LKY died on March 23, 2015. According to The Straits Times article written by Chinese Singaporean writer Daniel Lai, it should be interesting to note that he's the only Singaporean among the arrested. This is what Lai wrote about Amos, which should be  disturbing at several levels. The webpage states that Yee was convicted of enticement of a minor for indecent purposes, sexual exploitation of a minor via photograph and sexual exploitation of a minor via telecommunications . It added that he was arrested in Chicago, Illinois. The 27-year-old child sex offender is in the custody of ICE after he was released on parole on Nov 20. He is last known to have been detained at the Dodge Detention Facility in Wisconsin, a four-hour drive from Illinois, where he was serving a six-year jail term for child pornography and sexual ...

Updated: May 9, 2026 Several years ago, Case Unclosed featured an episode about the Chiong Sisters, a few years before Give Up Tomorrow came out. One of the things I could say is that GMA-7 is far less biased than ABS-CBN in news reporting. The late Antonio "Tony" Calvento even aired a dramatization of Davidson Rusia's testimony , which had Niño Muhlach play as Juan Francisco "Paco" Larranaga . It's easy to say, "Unlike you, I read the Supreme Court decision." This came out a year after the controversial case involving the late Federico "Toto" Natividad and his controversial film Animal  had ended in 2007. Apparently, Animal (2004),  which was released as Butakal (1999),  still remains banned. Since I'm not a lawyer nor do I have the temperament to be one in court, I'm simply writing based on common sense .  As I read through the Supreme Court decision , I confess it's a difficult read,  especially since I'm not a lawyer. ...

After many years of self-studying the Chiong Sisters Case , I have written several entries on the matter. In fact, I created what I call an "almost-ever-updating" review on Give Up Tomorrow , which was a documentary that challenged my views. I was hesitant to write this review, as it involves another sensitive issue. Some time later, I wrote an entry discussing another aspect of the Chiong Case, specifically  the issue of the late Federico "Toto" Natividad Jr. himself . I always thought it was an unethical issue. However, I was able to watch the film on YouTube (via a poor quality upload), and it doesn't seem that anyone from Natividad's estate is interested in fighting for the film's right to be distributed , not especially that Case Unclosed already came out in 2008, now available on GMA-7's official YouTube channel . Kara David did a meticulously good job featuring the Chiong mother, the Uy mother , and even another member of the " Run for Pa...