The Victorian Supreme Court in Australia has made it known that it does not approve of the in-chamber consultations practiced in the Philippines.

In a decision involving Philippine and Australian litigants, the Australian high court characterized such judicial practice as “highly inappropriate in Australia,” after the Philippine counsel of an Australian commercial client admitted to the Australian justices as having conducted “private discussion …with the judge in chambers” in a hotly contested case before Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel.

Ironically, the opposing counsels from Romulo Mabanta and Sycip Salazar law firms went on record accusing each other of having conducted such secret meetings with Pimentel.

Former censors chief Manuel Morato, an Edsa 1 die-hard, has apparently completely broken his ties with Senator Benigno Aquino III and is underwriting a new reprint of an anti-Aquino book, Greed and Betrayal, by journalist Cecilio Arillo.

Cecilio Pedro, the owner of Hapee toothpaste, attributes a large chunk of the “double-digit” decline in his company’s sales in 2009 to an unnamed multinational that “bought (supermarket) shelf space so we couldn’t display our products.”

A group of Malacañang-friendly columnists led by Jullie Yap Daza, Belinda Olivares-Cunanan and Carmen Pedrosa last night led the first wave of intimate dinners with the press hosted by outgoing President Arroyo.

After the pearls comes a second batch, a potent anti-GMA mix of columnists, who have been invited this noon also in Malacañang for a no-holds-barred question-and-answer session-over a non-Le Cirque lunch with their favorite

punching bag.

Malolos Regional Trial Court Judge Jaime Samonte has upheld the San Rafael Municipal Trial Court decision nullifying the voter’s registration of sportsman Ricardo Silverio Jr.. amid a number of documents submitted by Silverio Jr. in other court cases where he declared Makati as his residence, and not some hick Bulacan barrio as he would like the court to believe.

Silverio Jr. is running for congressman in Bulacan under the Estrada party against his 80-year-old father, who is graduating as San Rafael mayor, in the latest chapter of their long-running feud over inheritance.

In addition to actively searching for medical records, the camp of a national candidate plans to linka certain candidate with press reports to the coming autistic awareness week on the third week of January,thanking the candidate for helping increase theawareness of Filipinos to the childhood deficiency.

Ramos-era Solicitor General Francisco Chavez has apparently stepped on a lot of big toes within Ayala Alabang in his battle with the homeowners’ association.
Someone sent Cocktales a thick file of documents detailing a disbarment complaint against Chavez now pending with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay may be keeping mum about it, but his son Jejomar Erwin and daughter Mar-Len Abigail both topped a Pulse Asia survey, apparently commissioned by the elder Binay, to determine the chances of his children in the now free-for-all electoral contests in the country’s financial center.

Mar-len Abigail Binay