Buhay Petiks

Asset protection is not for weasels and scoundrels. Corporations and limited partnerships were created with “limited liability” features precisely to enable entities to institutionalize damage control mechanisms. Many who decide to incorporate or set up limited partnerships or trusts are not wily debt-dodgers. They are aware of the existence ol legal structures and organizations sanctioned by law to save the asset of families and entrepreneurs from overzealous lawsuit hounds. PeopI trying to make a decent living and trying to keep their families together may be driven below the poverty level as a result of litigation.
The Philippines is no different from these civilized nations. It is true that the derivative benefits scoundrels may enjoy from laws protecting properties from lawsuits cannot be characterized as de minimis. Laws will always have peripheral beneficiaries. This is unavoidable. But our appreciation of asset protection law will be enhanced when it is understood that the intended and primary beneficiaries of the law are the average Filipino families, legitimate businessmen and hard-working individuals who are willing to pay their liabilities but are concerned about having their estate dissipated beyond the threshold of their ability to pay.