LAST week’s column mentioned a 61-year-old detainee who languished in jail for three years for committing the crime of theft (of a sandwich called Bentelog worth, as the brand name suggests, P20).

Juan Sablaysana (not his real name) could be the Filipino version of Jean Valjean, the main character in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, who was hunted down by the police all his life for stealing two loaves of bread.