“Oh, that’s great, sir!” the bubbly Miss Deema Niwala jumped me right away, “I have a thousand questions! We have seen too many fake assemblies lately, I want to clear up a few things about representation.”
“Do you make a special effort to annoy me, Miss Deema, or is it a gift?” Her classmates giggled, being all too familiar with how their class ‘motormouth’ loves to hijack lectures.
“Well, you did say we should always look to apply all the concepts we learn in the classroom out there in the real world. You said it’s the only way the law really comes alive. You said the only law you understand is the law you apply. You said—”
“Okay, okay—I get it,” I said. I didn’t even realize I said all those things. But with this Alpha Class, even those little incidental trivial sayings I sprinkle throughout a typical lecture, or what Supreme Court justices call “obiter dictum,” they apparently write it down!
“Now, I’m having second thoughts. Maybe I should just discuss how to make a simple affidavit.” I tried backing out.
“Ah, ah, ah—you SAID you were going to discuss ESTOPPEL. We all heard you, sir” Miss Deema objected.
“Well, you see right there, Miss Deema, you just spelled out the whole meaning of estoppel. Does anyone have any idea where in your Civil Code that is found? Yes, Miss Grippa Baligtaran…”
“Sir, it’s in Article1431 – ‘Through estoppel an admission or representation is rendered conclusive upon the person making it, and cannot be denied or disproved as against the person relying thereon.’ So my own understanding of it is the law doesn’t allow you to contradict yourself to the detriment of another,” Miss Grippa, the coffee farmer’s daughter said.
“That’s correct, Griffy,” I acknowledged. “You see, class, it is not always necessary to have a formal affidavit signed under oath by a person to bind him to any statement, claim or representation that he made. In everyday life, we say a lot of very important things just verbally that may affect other people. And if there’s a mass of witnesses that will attest that you said something, you can’t just disown your own words. You made your bed, you lie down on it.”
A hand shot up from the back. It’s Jefferd Roxas Layao—whose nickname is “Jeffrox.” And whose middle name is Laquiza!
“Yes, Jeffrox Laquiza Layao, what is it?” the guy hasn’t even opened his mouth yet and his classmates are breaking out laughing already.
“So, sir, if a woman claims that she gathered 14,000 people in a gymnasium built to accommodate only 2,000, can we use that to prove that she lied?”
“I’m not sure I follow your logic, Jeffrox, can you be more specific?”
“You see, sir, this woman who claims to be the general manager of BENECO called for a fake general assembly in a small covered basketball court in Itogon—” I cut him short to clear up some details.
“Wait, did the assembly actually take place?”
“Yes, sir. But—“
“So how did you conclude that it’s a fake assembly if it really took place?” I quizzed the hippie-wannabe.
“It’s because of the purpose for the assembly, sir. She said it was a general membership assembly which is impossible because it was held in July,” Jeffrox continued, “but according to the BENECO bylaws that assembly can only be held in June.”
"Oh, so you're not questioning that the assembly took place, you're questioning its legal basis. That is crucial because if there was no basis to hold it, it makes no difference if the participants numbered one, or one thousand or 14,000. It's still just as invalid."
"Yes, sir, can we make her accountable for that?" Jeffrox wanted to know.
"Of course. Accountable for what? For calling that meeting? Why would she deny that?" I returned his query. I could see my class looking like wrestlers who know they can take on their enemy but don't know what wrestling hold to use.
“I’m sorry, Jeffrox, I’m not an expert on the BENECO bylaws but you know what, I suppose you can question the validity of that meeting, if you are a member of BENECO. Just determine first what is the 'hook' that you want to use.” I said.
“How, sir? How do you question an invalid meeting that is finished and already fait accompli?” Miss Deema butted in.
“No, no, no—you don’t question the meeting itself. There is more than one way to skin a cat, class. You shouldn’t think of law only in terms of events. You should think of law in terms of your rights and in terms of actions and representations done by people that affect your rights. That’s how you build up a cause of action,” I said.
Miss Hannah Maala from Buguias stood up, to my delight because this shy girl sits awfully quiet most of the time, “Yes, Miss Palindrome, what’s your question?”
“I am a registered member of BENECO, sir. I don’t care if that meeting was valid or not. My concern is how come I was not consulted on something that looks like it entailed some cost that I’m sure they got from funds that I contributed to as member,” said Miss Palindrome—the nick name I gave her because her name Hannah reads the same forwards or backwards.
“There you go, where’s Jeffrox? Jeffrox answer me these questions and maybe we’ll get somewhere. How many did you say this woman claimed went to that assembly that she called for?”
“FOURTEEN THOUSAND daw, sir.”
“That’s amazing. How did she convince that many people to come?”
“She promised they would give everyone who attended FREE five kilos of rice, sir.”
“Did they?”
“They boast that they did, sir.”
“So how many kilos of rice would you need to give to 14,000 people?”
Jeffrox did this strange thing with his fingers and knuckles, using them like some sort of calculator before he answered, “that comes up to around 70,000 kilos, sir.”
“And how much is the average price of one kilo of rice today?” I queried.
“Ay nu napintas nga bagas kasla Dinorado, mapan nga P70.00 per kilo ah,” Mommy Dionisia, my oldest student interrupted.
“I don’t go to the city market so I’ll take your word for it by virtue of estoppel,” I joked, “so, Jeffrox, do that fingers-and-knuckles thing that you do again, how much would 70,000 kilos of rice cost?”
“Comes up to around P4.9-million, sir, but they had to truck it to Itogon so that would add about 20 percent to the cost.”
“So how much, all in all?”
“Around P5.8-million, sir.”
“There you go, Miss Hannah, if you want to make somebody accountable for spending money that you contributed to, that’s your working figure. P5.8-million pesos, which is not peanuts, definitely. That’s pretty large-scale malversation if you can prove that there was no basis to spend it.” I said.
“But suppose they say that the P5.8-million pesos figure is too exaggerated, sir?”
“Well, if it was THEY who said 14,000 people came to that meeting, it doesn’t matter if it’s exaggerated or not, it doesn’t even have to be true—”
I wasn’t finished when suddenly my junior law students started popping up one by one like mushrooms reciting in a lightning storm.
“THEY were the ones who claimed that 14,000 attended! They cannot deny or disprove that now against us who will rely on that representation THEY made,” said Miss Deema.
“THEY were the ones who said everyone who attended would get FIVE KILOS of rice!” Miss Laarnee Iwasan said.
“THEY were the ones who said that these five kilos were FREE, so they cannot say now that the recipients actually paid for it. The money was taken from BENECO!” said Jack Makataruz.
“THEY were the ones who said it was a BENECO activity so they could not have spent anybody else’s money except BENECO’s!” said Miss Kata.
“THEY were the ones who said it was a general membership assembly, so they cannot deny the legal standing of any member who will question it now!" said Juan Dimacaawat.
The whole class suddenly reached boiling point, everybody was murmuring one comment or another, getting more animated by the minute.
So I banged the blackboard to refocus them, “Here, here—you see, class? That’s the importance of estoppel. You don’t need too much proof to hang on to somebody’s public pronouncements. And the beauty of it is, in court, you don’t have too much to prove, either. The beauty of estoppel is that even if you deny your own words or action later, or even if you pledge that you do not do such a thing, the very denial becomes the affirmation of the act itself. That’s why in Anglo-saxon legal tradition, a ‘nolo contendere’ is not an acceptable plea.” A lot of raised eyebrows when they heard the Latin phrase “nolo contendere” but I know who to rely on for quick summaries of these concepts.
“Miss Deema, explain nolo contendere,”
“It’s like saying ‘I didn’t do it, Your Honor, but I won’t do it again.” The girl snapped, sending everybody laughing once more.
“I’m glad you’re getting the idea," I said, “for tomorrow, please read ahead on ‘res inter alios acta’ so we can compare it with estoppel. Class dismissed….Miss Deema, Miss Kata, Jack and Jeffrox, may I have a word with you for a minute, please?”
After most of the class had left the room, except for Teacher’s pet and her best friends Miss Kata, Jack and Jeffrox, I asked “Miss Deema, so what’s all this I hear about you and your classmates running around making trouble?”
“Trouble sir? What kind of trouble? Who's making trouble? Moi?” Miss Deema feigned innocence, rolling her eyes to the left.
“Well, some people I talked to—they seem to be in panic--I’ve never seen them more nervous about some multimillion cooperative funds that you guys are investigating in your free time?”
“Oh, THAT ONE! Oh, that’s just a little hobby we picked up, sir, nothing to be concerned about,” said Miss Kata.
“A hobby! Wow. Really?? A hobby, huh…what other hobbies do you have, brain surgery?? Well, how big is this fund that you are investigating in your little hobby??”
“Oh, not so big, sir, only about FIFTY-EIGHT MILLION PESOS!” Jack said.
I almost fell off my chair!
“Good golly! That much?? Well, okay, I can’t say I discourage you because I know you must be motivated by some noble purpose. So I just want to say I want you people to be careful, especially with things you say in public. You know your law, use that to your advantage. You know what to watch out for. You know you can always get caught in—”
“ESTOPPEL!!” they all chorused.*
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