Hooking up with Greg

I take pleasure in relaying that my very good friend and law school classmate, Greg Macaltao, is doing very well as a businessman in Vancouver. I hooked up with Greg in our recent Vancouver visit just to know how he is doing. I re-connected with him at Facebook and told him I would be in town. We met at a Starbucks outlet inside a grocery store near the place we parked. We had a nice time talking about the past, the present, and the future. Past: Greg was a good friend in law school, a seat mate in fact in Section B. Very good student, and studied at the fourth floor where the Ateneo MBA was housed, from early morning till class time. After law school and a few years of Manila law practice he moved to the U.S. to study masters in business in the U.S., and made a career shift from law to business. Present: He is Vancouver-based now, living near downtown and establishing a start-up export-import business with some partners. He buys goods/products from the Philippines, and ships it to Vancouver for distribution. What the product was, he didn't disclose at that time for superstitious reasons. Future: He hopes to make the first major shipment in a couple of months, and is wishing everything goes well. I'm sure it will. Way to go, Greg...

Law School ID

I found today my old law school ID from an old box.
For posterity, and like other ID's I will just post it in my blog.
There is a great chance this wouldget lost again.
I went to the Ateneo law school at Rockwell last Friday and I saw that there are new kinds of IDs issued to students there, more sophisticated ones.
IDs capable of being swiped.
Ours in the nineties were just laminated.
I met the same pretty faces at the adminitration office.
"O, napasyal ka?" one of them said.
"I want to re-enroll," I jokingly told them.
The tuition fee has made leaps and bounds.
It now costs P70,000.00 (US$1,400.00) per semester, excluding everything.
My goodness.
It would be more expensive for those coming from the province (like I was) since you need to cover board and lodging.
But the experience, and expenses were all worth it.
Very rigorous training and preparation.
We use to call it the "drill-type" of training.
The law professor was like a drill sergeant testing us, day-in and day-out for four years, whether we read the assigned cases and books.
I can still vividly recall the venerable Justice Relova.
In four years, it all becomes mechanical.
Quite an experience...

My Ateneo diploma

I was pleaseantly surprised when my mother told me that my diploma from Aten>eo de Manila College of Law has been "lying" here in Dumaguete.
I thought all along, that this diploma had been lost already.
Though just paper, diplomas often mean the world to the person that holds them. Whether they are from Harvard or a community college, they are far more than just a regular piece of paper.
In fact, those have earned a criminal justice degree may be inclined to set up an investigation if one went missing. Upon not being able to find it, they may do something along the lines of incorporating other agencies to help with the hunt. I, on the other hand, left getting my degree back up to chance.
I haven't been good in keeping diplomas.
Once, I thought I lost my lawyer's certification issued by the Supreme Court.
Then I found out later, it had been languishing in the high court for years as I forgot to claim it.
Anyway, I told my mother to just keep the law school diploma, lest it be misplaced.
The diploma has been framed (thanks to mother) but covered with plastic and hidden beside a working table.
So like my college diploma, I took a picture and just "store" it here in my blog.
It is written in some alien language---Latin probably--- so the only things I can understand are my name and the degree earned: "Juris Doctor".

Law school reunion

Time has flown so fast.

We realized it's been ten years since graduation from law school.

So some classmates thought of gathering those who are based in Manila for a dinner at Greenbelt last Friday.

It was a reunion of members of Section B of class 1997.

It was a way not only to touch base with former classmates, but to update the whereabouts of others, many of whom have crossed borders and settled elsewhere.

One, according to Bong Montesa has relocated in N. America, where is he now both happy and gay.

One update that struck me was that those who had been married during our student days, are already single. That is just after ten years.

So the average span of married life, is about ten years after law school?

At least that was the outcome, based on expereience of our classmates.

Who were there?

There was Anna Bautista, Roselle Tenefrancia, dubbed as the Swing Out Spinsters.

There was Jiggs Paraiso, who expressed some exasperateration after ten gruelling years of litigation.

Bong Montesa, the perrenial joker, after a stint with the Department of Education, is setting his eye in politics.

Jomar Castillo, is into labor law.

Boyet Del Prado has just gotten a presidenital appointed to the Inter Country Adoption Board.

Voltz Enriquez is busy tightening Quezon City's grip over the ownership Boracay Mansion.

Marlo Magdoza, has just arrived from a study leave in London, and has begun warming her bench as presiding judge of MeTC Manila.

Jason Natividad said is happy with Mimi Factoran's Dad.

It's a two member firm.

Bong suggested in jest that Jason petition to change his name from Natividad to "Associates" so that they can re-name their law firm to "Fatoran and Associates."

Edward Maceda is councilor of Manila and still has to confirm whether to upgrade the airconditioning of Marlo's sala.

Andrew Isip is into banking law and litigation. We constantly see each other in the sala of that pretty RTC judge.

As for Mimi Factoran, I don't exactly know no where is connected, after leaving both Ayala Land and her husband.

As for Diday Moya, she was late as usual.