Dura lex: not your mom’s kitchenware

Although Tess Cusipag has been in charge of Balita for quite a time now, a salute is in order now that it is made official.
Balita is now over 40 years old and strong, in fact stronger. Congratulations and salute from this column. Is it appropriate to say “life begins at 40?” – even for a publication?
Speaking of publications, I received an email lately (it could have been one of those mass emails) that the Inquirer Group of Companies is strengthening its grip of the global market. The email says that Inquirer, which claims to be the largest circulated national broadsheet in the Philippines will start, or has started, its foray in Canada.
The email could be true, it could be a hoax. Or a fluke. It is believable, though. I am waiting for a response to a query.
The paper, the email said, will be distributed In Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto, of course. Under what publishing and marketing model will PDI operate, still I don’t know. Currently, it has increased its influence among the OFW audience scattered all over the world through its newly launched Radyo Inquirer 990, available live on the internet. The radio in a short period of time has seized a sizeable Philippine market, not to mention its global reach, especially the Middle East and Asia. It also has a monopoly of the Philippine National Railway riders from Tutuban to Naga, and back.
In Metro Manila PDI has cornered the underserved B,C, an D market though its Inquirer Libre and as the title says it is distributed free twice daily among MRT and LRT riders from Monumento to Baclaran, and back. It operates similar to how Metro and 24 operate here in the GTA. Both Metro and 24 are free-pick-up papers usually at subway stations.
Under a similar strategy, advertisers get attracted to the sheer volume of its readership and the buying power of its readers, We must remember that majority of the riders are either business people or workers, and students who consume almost anything from gum to cell phones, to clothes, pizza, pens, and bras, etc.
The format is very readable, something that could be read in between subway stops and tossed out only to be picked up by the next rider. Inquirer Libre has just turned ten years old last year. Balita and the rest of the Filipino-Canadian publication have been operating for almost 50 years now within the same scheme with similar strategy in mind.
If I remember right, Metro is patterned after what started in Brazil with its millions of daily subway, which they call metro, commuters. Who copied from whom?
Regardless, let those with the mettle and the stamina prevail. In this constantly changing world, people have to change to keep up with the changes around them.
Speaking of stamina: they sang, they danced, they raised funds. Congratulations and we hope the beneficiaries receive what were raised. It’s ugly and sad to say but such things have happened in the past. Accountability and transparency are two things we are not very good at. Big things (pagkupit or is it pangungupit ) come from little things (pagkupit, pa rin), more or less.
“What do you mean by ‘more or less’?”, asked my “Obligations and Contracts” professor in such a pompous way only lawyers could ask. I supposed he meant it to be a rhetorical question since he did not give anyone in our class to give the answer. “How much more and how much less?” he continued.
“When you buy a ten-hectare piece of land and the title states that it is ten hectares, more or less,” he said, “you could not complain if the actual measurement is only nine hectares.” Well, you would rejoice if it turns out to be 11 hectares in which case the seller could not, by law, take back the extra one hectare. That is the law; it may be harsh but it is the law — dura lex, sed lex.
Which is the operative word in the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Renato Corona. Although the main intention is to ferret out the truth, all the legal wrangling, and in their Latin forms at that, may waylay the real intent of the exercise. With all the legalese, Corona, despite that the majority of the sentiment of the Filipino people is against him and even if delicadeza and common sense are stack against him – the man may still be exonerated in the Senate. Dura lex, sed lex. The law is harsh, it is the law.
Dura lex is not one of your mother’s kitchen wares. So beware, this one is hard to break. This is the story of the Filipino people.