"So where were you at during the murder of Juan dela Cruz?"

Okay. It's not that kind of hearing. It wasn't even a hearing. 20 minutes tops and we were done. This morning, we attended a mediation meeting. I'm unaware of the procedures, but apparently, before a case becomes a full blown case (court, judge, "do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth", etc) there's a mediation meeting between the plaintiff, the defendant, their counsels in front of a mediation officer. The sole purpose is to try to settle it there and then because a hearing takes forever.

Well, the mediation officer was not successful this time. The final report read something like back to court. No settlement made, without prejudice to either party. (I think which meant that we can settle outside if we wanted to).

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Separate meeting afterwards with the lawyer.

"So Evelyn, are you involved and familiar with the sequence of events with this case?" Yes.

"Good. Because Monique is pregnant. You will most probably be the witness."

Boss butts in. "It's okay. I'm due Feb pa naman."

"Yes, that's when most probably the hearing will be because of the backlog of cases in Makati Regional Trial Court."

Okay. (But at the back of my head - What? Feb pa?!)

"Besides, it's always better if there are two testimonies, instead of one. So, Evelyn, don't go anywhere okay?"

(Yikes.)

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Can I just say, that the Makati Hall of Justice looks pretty much like a public school. Gawd, they badly need a revamp. Their offices were inside classroom types. Everything was old. The windows, the doors, the hallways.

Mayor Binay, would you like me to offer you some space? But then again, they have so much backlog that they probably don't have time to think of anything else. And I don't want February 2008 to become February 2009, now do I?

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There you go. A truth revealed - with a few errors.