A door behind the wood-topped steel table slides open. A middle-age balding man in black robe emerges.
“Kindly all stand. The session will now begin. You are ordered to observe silence.” The announcement is electronic: there are around ten coin-size buttons that dot the wide ceiling where the electronic sound has come from.
Inside the brightly-lit hall, around ten people are gathered. Their eyes are fixed on the robed man who is now behind the table. Atop the table is an inch-high wire-thin microphone standing in the middle, a steel gavel resting on a small round two-inch steel plate, and some buttons located on the right side of the robed man.
Grasping the gavel, the robed man quickly eyes the crowd. He motions the crowd to sit and releases the gavel in front of him. He sits down and presses a button. Instantly, another electronic announcement fills the hall. “Scheduled for trial today is Case No. 200001-2102. People of the Philippines vs. Jonelli Martido. For the crime of rape.” Slowly, a 15-inch monitor opens up and rises near the right corner of the robed man’s table...
[Note: Read the complete story in the book "You Filibini?" Stories and Other Writings by Amador F. Brioso, Jr., published May 2010]
