January 5, 2011. Back to school. First day of school for the year 2011. This date also marks one of my most memorable recitations in law school. Imagine being on deck for almost a month under Atty. Bong Bernas' conflicts class. Even one week would put shivers down your spine multiply that by four. For those who don't know, Atty. Bernas is one of the scariest professors in Ateneo Law, but I mean that in a positive way. He is a hardcore perfectionist professor who accepts only the best answer from his students. Those who don't measure up to his standards remain standing. He expects students not only to know the law, they must also be "experts" in the English language. And I learned that the hard way. The word "truth" is only for elementary students, he told me in class. Third year law students are prohibited from using this word. We should know better that reality is far from this concept, I think that's what he meant. His comment caught me by surprise. I actually intended it as a joke when I said it. But I guess he didn't buy it. I'm not the joker type anyway.
Law students are presumed to know that truth, in its quintessential meaning, does not hang around courtrooms. Say for example the Vizconde massacre case. Although Hubert Webb and others were acquitted, we, mortal beings, will never know if the outcome of that decision was the product of truth.
Despite the embarassment it caused me, the idealist in me still believes that truth may still be found in courtrooms. As Brandon Boyd said: "Don't let the world bring you down, not everyone here is that f**ked up and cold"
