Informal Law Education Series
This page contains links to articles written by Atty. Joel Rodriguez Dizon containing lessons delivered in the form of simulated lectures in a fictional section of junior law students belonging to the Alpha and Omega classes at a fictional college of law called the Layman School of Law and Justice. Although entirely fictional, all the lectures contain real and accurate legal insights. The “students'” recitations are based on his interactions with real students he has had teaching law for more than ten years in the Baguio Colleges Foundation College of Law in the Philippines.
PSNL48
“Dura Lex Sed Lex”Pre-Semester Non-classroom Lecture 48 Laws would be meaningless without courts. Laws tell you what your rights are. But your rights end where my rights begin. It is the court that draws the line between us. Without that clear separating line telling both of us what’s yours from mine, I would claim the…Continue reading→
PSF49
Pre-Semester Frontier Post 49 Persona non grata” literally translates to “an unwelcome person” in Latin. It’s not a crime, so it has no penalty. It’s neither a judgment nor a decision handed down by a court, so it cannot be executed. It is always contained in a resolution, never an ordinance, so there is really…Continue reading→
PSF50
Pre-Semester Frontier Post 50 (Facebook’s “Artificial Intelligence” Failing to Protect MCO Accounts) Artificial intelligence” (AI) is another one of those contradiction in terms you will inevitably have the pure annoyance of running into these days. All social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google Search) use it to power these protocols that recommend what videos you…Continue reading→
S1L1
S1L1 – How the “Rule of Law” is perverted mimics a pro-wrestling match The best way to understand how the “rule of law” is perverted is to watch any professional wrestling match on YouTube. Pick any match where the two opponents wear ridiculous costumes that look more inspired by Halloween than by athletic design. They…Continue reading→
S1L2
S1L2 – NEA’s red-tagging strategy will backfire and spook the business community Everyone in Baguio should be alarmed by the red-tagging strategy that NEA has unwisely decided to include in its arsenal of weapons against BENECO. The business community, in particular, should be very concerned. In a recent religious gathering attended by NEA sympathizers, the…Continue reading→
S1L3
S1L3 – Senate Probe of NEA will expose its Derelect Relevance So there’s going to be a Senate investigation into this worsening anarchy that the National Electrification Administration (NEA) is fomenting in Baguio and Benguet in its hungry grab for BENECO. When all the chips start falling where they may, NEA may yet realize that…Continue reading→
S1L4
S1L4 – The Failure of Diligence of PNB over BENECO’s Money This is for my law students preparing for the Bar. This is on Banking Laws and Procedures (Debit Transactions): QUESTION: Can BENECO recover the one million pesos withdrawn from its account by strangers? Yes. It will take some doing, of course, because law-abiding citizens…Continue reading→
S1L5
S1L5 – NEA is Applying the Doctrine of “Presumption of Regularity” Totally wrong January (Bar Exam) is just around the corner. We have very little time to cram as much information as we can into our law students’ heads. So for those who are asking, this is the reason why I “sneak in” some basic…Continue reading→
S1L6
S1L6 – How to interpret law using “Ejusdem Generis” To my law students in the college of law and in the Facebook School of Law: What is meant by “EJUSDEM GENERIS?” It’s a rule in statutory construction—which, by the way, has nothing to do with engineering. It’s the activity of construing (interpreting) what a statute…Continue reading→
S1L7
S1L7 – The Most Potent Basis of Consumer power: OWNERSHIP When American Idol Season 1 Champion Kelly Clarkson sang, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” she could very well have been singing about what’s happening in BENECO today. Before NEA launched its campaign to terrorize local consumers with a “SEAL Team Six” type of…Continue reading→
S1L8
S1L8 – “Trapos” panicked by the rise of MCO Power Now, it’s giving shifty politicos a migraine—this belated awareness that the BENECO member-consumer-owners (MCO’s) just might be an even bigger bailiwick than the INK and the Catholics combined. Politico A: “Naku, patay tayo ngayon, padli. Ang laki palang boto ng BENECO members!” Politico B: “Oo…Continue reading→
S1L9
S1L9 – Quantifying the Enormous Voting Strength of MCO Power This is an interesting number to ponder: 138,000. That’s the number of member-consumer-owners (MCO’s) of BENECO as of the end of September 2021. Baguio City has 164,125 registered voters. In other words, there are only 26,125 more registered Baguio voters than BENECO members. If you…Continue reading→
S1L10
S1L10 – Desperate NEA Resorts to Red-tagging Mia Magdalena In July 2018, the Philippine government deported 71-year old Australian Missionary nun Sister Patricia Fox, oblivious of the fact she had lived in the Philippines for more than 27 years. She spoke Cebuano, Ilonggo, Waray, Hiligaynon, Chabacano and Tagalog more fluently than even President Duterte himself….Continue reading→
S1L11
S1L11 – Rebellion has no penalty if the rebels win I’m shuffling classcards again for today’s class recitation….Juan Dimacaawat? “Present, sir!” Alright, Mr. Dimacaawat. Please read Art. 135 of your Revised Penal Code. “Any person who promotes, maintains or heads a rebellion or insurrection shall suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua.” So tell your classmates,…Continue reading→
S1L12
S1L12 – How BENECO’s valiant MCO’s are like Masadans, outnumbered but not outfought The siege of Masada was one of the final events in the First Jewish–Roman War which raged from 73 to 74 A.D. On a high plateau above the plains of modern-day Israel, a small community of about 900 Hasmonean Jews took their…Continue reading→
S1L13
S1L13 – The Courts: Where trolls and bashers cannot prevail I am biased for litigation, but on a practical level I would do everything to try to avoid going to trial. It’s too costly, stressful and time-consuming. And you never really attain closure until you’ve finally reached the Supreme Court usually SEVERAL years down the…Continue reading→
S1L14
S1L14 – The Difference between “power of control” and “supervision”” This is potentially boring stuff unless you’re sick and tired of people who talk like they know everything about electric cooperatives, BENECO, and NEA—but are actually bluffing and just trying to impress you. This might “empower” you for that next encounter. In other words, this…Continue reading→
S1L15
S1L15 – Everything that “Persona Non Grata” Resolution means or does not mean One of the myths that law students are able to dispel quickly is the popular impression that their law professors know everything. They hold them in such high esteem that many become disillusioned when they realize their favorite teacher didn’t really walk…Continue reading→
S1L16
S1L16 – How to guard yourself against cyberlibel, introducing Juan Dimacaawat Mister Juan Dimacaawat, are you around?” My favorite law student is a stocky fellow from Mankayan, Benguet, the son of a retired miner who now owns a welding shop fabricating “ball mills” for neighborhood pocketminers. I like calling him during recitations because he is…Continue reading→
S1L17
S1L17 – How the public is being hypnotized into surrendering BENECO In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king. What this old adage means, to me, is that men obtain power because they see what others cannot. A more cynical expression of this is men obtain power by preventing others from seeing. In…Continue reading→