"It is prohibited by law to take out of the boat lifesaving apparatus except for intended use."
This notice is a particularly turgid mix of bureaucratese and legalese that's meant to terrify people into uncomprehending submission. Its effect is, of course, very much like a religious invocation delivered in Latin or Greek or Hebrew to a congregation whose members speak only Tagalog or some other Philippine regional language or dialect. Only the speaker is meant to understand what's being said and the listeners are just expected to be conveniently spellbound. In short, it is jargon and it really has no business being used in a notice that could spell the difference between life and death among those who read it.
In plain and simple English, that notice actually means this:
"It is illegal to take out this life vest except during an emergency."
But I submit that it's better worded in this reader-friendly way:
"This life vest is for use only during an emergency."
Those who ride the MRT or LRT must have also encountered similarly worded jargon in the train coaches. Written from the cockeyed perspective of bureaucrats and lawyers, those warnings seem to be concerned more with the illegality of misusing lifesaving equipment than with its proper use in saving lives.
There really ought to be a law against such language.
