So it didn’t take long for the “magic” of the “Jamich” couple — the late Jamvhille ‘Jam’ Sebastian and Paolinne Michelle ‘Mich’ Liggayu — to turn into a little shop of domestic horrors. No sooner than Jam was laid to rest did the fireworks begin.
It was as if, Jam’s mother Maricar Sebastian, was dressed for the cameras when she showed up for the 40th-day commemoration of her son’s death. Eyes covered with showbiz shades, dressed in a little black bare-shoulders top, flowing hair revealing her multi-thousand peso scalp care regime, it was plainly obvious as she appeared in an interview with GMA News that Maricar was on a war path to claim her “fair” share of the loot her son left behind, even demanding a “breakdown” of her son’s finances presumably to take stock of what she is supposedly entitled to (see video below)…
Classy. Money issues are a favorite Pinoy topic. And being so, I guess it’s not too surprising that the details of how the usual vultures now pick through Jam’s estate are now available in living color on national TV!
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Maybe it’s just me, but I do wonder who really enjoys first dibs on Jam’s loot which he and his partner Mich accumulated while at the top of their game as social media stars. It’s probably quite a substantial stash considering the way Mich was laughing and singing (all the way to the bank??) on video even as Jam lay dying behind her.
To most Filipinos, the answer is likely to be obvious — as Jam’s mother, she should get some of it. To me, however, what seems obvious to Pinoys cannot be taken as a given. I mean, Filipinos being the world-renowned point-missers that they are will not see the fact of the matter of the original source of that loot. I mean, if there was no “Jamich” brand to begin with, there wouldn’t be any loot that will be the subject of all this underclass tele-angst, right?
To that argument, Maricar’s response was “Hindi mabubuo ang ‘Jamich’ kung walang Jam” (“There would be no ‘Jamich’ if there was no Jam.”) — logic that is, of course, sensible to most Filipinos. Maricar, who gave birth to Jam, is “therefore”, entitled to the wealth that is the outcome of his work as an adult.
The crown jewel of the Jamich estate, it seems, are all the social media accounts around which the couple built a vast million-people following which Maricar now claims she has been cut out of…
“Nung namatay ang anak ko, ang cellphone ng anak ko nasa amin. Hiniram mo kay Yexel (kapatid ni Jam), ano ginawa mo, ni-log out mo ang Facebook, ni-log out mo ang email, ni-log out mo lahat. Ni-log out mo ang Jamich page during the wake, bakit? para mawalan kami ng access dahil alam mo sa Jamich page, pinagkakakitaan niyo ‘yan; na until now sinabi niyo na-hack,” ayon pa kay mommy Maricar.
[Translated: “When my son [Jam] died, we had his cellphone, but you borrowed it and logged us all out of his Facebook and email accounts, and everything else. You also logged us out of the Jamich Facebook page to remove our access to these lucrative assets. To this day, you claim these accounts were hacked.”]
Ahh yes, an interesting case study of 21st Century digital wealth management!
Watch Maricar’s tele-tirade and you just can’t help but get the cringes. To think Filipinos look up to these people. Recall how the “Jamich” brand was all about sharin’ the luvin’. Tsk tsk. Now it’s all hate-hate-hate. You know it’s time to put on the earplugs or change the channel when you start hearing palengke-speak on TV. But changing the channel is unlikely to be da Pinoy’s response to all this ugliness. It’s all showbiz warts and all. And, as far as business sense in the media industry goes, warts on celebrities’ flawless skin are always newsworthy.
Frustrated artist doing geek for a living.
Under the law on succession, in the absence of a will and a surviving spouse, the parents inherit the estate of the deceased.
Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy.
Legal question aside, this issue is a big crock of personal crap that should have been kept within the family and other involved persons and shouldn’t have been made public in the first place.
However, Mich can be viewed as a partner of the Jamich franchise, hence she is entitled to some of the wealth accumulated. However, is it considered a franchise?
Now, I see some legal battle along the way and lawyers of both respective camps smilingly going to banks for legal fees.
You mean a *partnership*.
Even if there was, the law is clear: everything Jam owned at the time of his death is subject to the law on succession.
If Jam left no will, and Jam and Mich not being married at the time of the former’s death, the closest direct relatives shall inherit — Jam’s parents.
Y’know what, Mich should’ve married Jam. That way, she would’ve gotten 50% of the guy’s estate. AND with the entry into force of the law allowing a widow to marry another person as early as *one day* after the death of her spouse, she would’ve made the most out of the whole thing and came out somewhat richer, common decency be damned.
But of course she didn’t know that.
Such a pity, really.
P.S.: Of course their lawyers would smilingly go to banks for legal fees. They should. Law school is hell; they deserve every peso. They’re the only ones who know the laws of this God-forsaken nation. Everybody else is too “busy”, too stupid — or both — to even bother reading at least the Constitution.
P.P.S.: People should be encouraged to know at least the basics of succession. You should be aware of where your property would go and how it would be distributed in the event of your deaths.
I mean, people — you owe it to yourselves. 😛
“Watch Maricar’s tele-tirade and you just can’t help but get the cringes. To think Filipinos look up to these people.”
I can’t help but cringe too because somehow this is one of those things that happens also in other families. Always looming like vultures but they are not going for the body but for the money. I don’t look up to these kind of people but a majority of people especially the young ones do. There’s a striking few young people who don’t.
Looks like this thing will never really be over after all. Even in death he still is the issue. 🙁 Oh well, this is a typical day for the typical pinoy.
This is interview is a waste of airtime. Filipinos should’ve ignored this show unless they are a party involved in this case. Unfortunately, a few Filipinos have all the time in the world to watch this and, from what I noticed, if you give them something better to do and ask to refocus their attention, sila pa ang galit! As if the Jamich issue has something to do with their lives!
Mich mangagamit ka lang wala kang karapatan dapat itakwil kang puta ka!