Thoughts on Week One

Yes I survived week one and a few hours from now, I'll be reporting for work for week two. But just the same, I need to have a break and at the same time, an update on what's happening around me. Work has been very time consuming. The earliest that I went home from work was at 9PM. The latest was at 11:30PM. And I have a 9:30AM hearing at the NLRC next day. Oh man!

To Ateneo Law students reading this, guess who I saw in a mandatory conciliation conference that I attended last week: the one and only Atty. Alan Paguia. He was representing the complainant along with another utot lawyer though Atty. Paguia would later claim that he was merely advocating a cause; of course he has to make that excuse because the Supreme Court has already said that he is suspended indefinitely from the practice law. Practice of law includes appearing in the NLRC arbitration hearings. He was surprised to see me there too. He asked if I'll be the one handling all the ABS-CBN cases and I said that maybe on the conciliation level. Good thing for me, he said. Good training. Just fresh from law school, started working just three days before, and now appearing in the NLRC mediation conference and representing the biggest broadcasting company in the country: ABS-CBN. Made feel good about my work since Labor Law is not really my forte. No one looks for underbar associates who specialize in Constitutional Law, Human Rights, Administrative Law, and Election Law. Ergo, no money for me if I don't look at the other fields of the law...

Last wednesday, I went home at 11:30PM. Initially, I was afraid to go home. It's late, dark, and probably hard to get a cab. I was surprised when I went out of Prestige Tower: putsa pare parang tanghali pa lang! SO MANY PEOPLE! Emerald Avenue was bustling with people smoking, eating, drinking, and having coffee. I forgot that there are about a thousand and one call centers around the area. So it is safe to go home late though I have no plans to stay up that late again soon. Warak ka kasi pag harap mo sa arbiter kinabukasan eh.

One last thing, probably the biggest revelation that I discovered in my first week is that big companies hire good labor law firms to do IMPOSSIBLE THINGS. I'm handling a case that when you look at the facts, from all angles, it is evident that the company did a pretty stupid thing and they're trying to argue their way out of it. Kung ginawa na lang regular yung empleyado baka nakatipid pa sila. Dispatcher lang naman eh. The problem is, they did not do it and now they're asking us to remedy the problem. I'm now preparing the appeal for that and I dunno how to justify their act. "Appeal until we reach the Supreme Court" was the company's demand and I'm now preparing a petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45 for that. As the partner in the firm said: "Companies hire us because they expect that we can do miracles. If the case is easy and they can win on the merits, they would just let their in-house counsel handle it." This is the first time that I learned about this fact. Another thing that the Ateneo don't teach us.

That is it for now. Catch up with you guys again soon. Merry Christmas to Christians, Happy Hannukah for Jews, and for godless people like me, Have a Happy Day to Eat Drink Sleep Late and Still Get Paid Full Day! Happy Holidays people. #