Convicted child rapist and former congressman Romeo Jalosjos should be facing a bleak old age in jail for committing what Filipinos consider the lowest of crimes.
With friends in high places, however, this wealthy patriarch of a political clan in the south now brags of impending freedom. He may be right.
On December 16 he simply walked out of the national penitentiary in suburban Manila, then flew by private plane to an island resort in the south.
After a predictable outcry, police arrested him the next day. The 67-year-old tried to wave them off with a copy of a release order, which he claimed was justified by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's grant of executive clemency in April this year, when she reduced his two life sentences to a 16-year term.
Jalosjos is now behind bars again - but his case provides a startling insight into a Philippine judicial and political system that never ceases to amaze.
Jalosjos' incarceration has already led to the sacking of three jail wardens.