ILIGAN City ― My good friend Fely smiled as she looked over her cell phone.

"What's that?" I asked. We then drank some coffee at a diner here.

She then showed the posts on her cell phone. I saw the picture of Alice Guo. Beside her face was a picture too of Sen. Risa Hontiveros. The caption below the faces read: "Catch me if you can!" Below the two faces was the face of Congresswoman Camille Villar. The caption below her face read: "Ingat sa biyahe!"

The two of us couldn't help laughing. Had the then Bamban, Tarlac mayor case become a laughing matter? Of course, for the government, it is such a serious matter. And the "seriousness'' bore fruit. For lately a sister, Sheila Go, and a companion were reported to have been caught on their tracks outside the country, somewhere in Indonesia.

And then, we see images on screen, of again, Hontiveros along with other senators. And the cause of the trouble, or concern? VP Sara. About some books on children during her DepEd days which amounted to about 10 M pesos. And the VP commented that the matter is "politicized." So, at one point, she mentioned the senator, asking her help and the Duterte clan so that she would win the post of senator. Implying that she didn't have the "utang na loob" in her.

Thankfully, there was Senator Grace Poe who seemed to act as the "referee" of the two. Because the statements of the two were already filled "with feelings." Making me remember some lyrics of a song that says, "Feelings/ Nothing more than feelings/ Trying to forget…." Ah, never mind. Another kind of woman came to my mind, a "deadly" one. Oh, pardon me for seemingly becoming judgmental. Didn't they say "Don't judge a book by its cover, because you are not a judge"? Or, "Don't judge a book. Cover the book."

Well, this woman who is not a Pinay, but a Vietnamese took that country's banking industry by storm. In a negative way. Truong My Lan had humble beginnings. As a kid, she had helped her mother sell some wares, like cosmetics. And then by and by when she grew up she became the owner of 3 small banks. Later she was able to merge with Saigon Commercial Bank. With the merger, she had controlling shares of SCB. Which allowed her to give loans to shell companies that she owned.

Now what are shell companies? In our understanding, it's just "company-company." Meaning not a true company. With her, of course as the center of such "shells." With such, she was able to give loans to these "shells" from SCB. With the help of officials of the central bank there, whom she reportedly bribed.

With years and years of this kind of dealings, something had to give. As in SCB was on the verge of collapse. The central bank though was able to prevent such by rescuing SCB. And get through to the root of the matter. Truong My Lan was arrested in 2022. And later convicted. The judgment? Death penalty.

This caught the Vietnamese by surprise because such kind of judgment is meted to those crimes that are heinous. Like murder, or allied ones.

Email: nora.lady@yahoo.com or contact 09277983167|09073384874