GRAND ENTRANCE. Caviteños in the vicinity were thrilled by the arrival of the Gutierrez family at around 9:30 a.m.  A crowd of spectators wielding cameras filled the street as the celebrities alighted from a Mitsubishi Rosa micro-bus that they parked in front of the Imus City Hall of Justice.

Accompanying the family were Annabelle's star talents Ehra Madrigal, Michelle Madrigal, Bubbles Paraiso, and Carla Humphries, plus Royale Era Entertainment publicist Jun Lalin.

Richard's group was immediately ushered to Preliminary Investigation Room No. 1, where Richard was expected to affirm the counter-affidavit his lawyer filed on Aug. 28. Richard had not been present on that day.

Eddie, Richard, Ramon Christopher, Pilita, and Annabelle occupied the whole second row of Room No. 1. Lorayne sat directly in front of Annabelle, but the two did not acknowledge each other's presence.

Fans started milling around the stars and asked to have their pictures taken with them. The stars obliged. At about 10 a.m., Prosecutor Velasco called the two parties to his office. He talked to them about working out an amicable settlement. He said he believed that a settlement was still possible.

Atty. Asuncion, Richard's counsel, then proposed that Prosecutor Velasco talk to the the complainant and the defendant individually. Atty. Jainal, Lorayne's counsel, agreed to the proposal.

Velasco first had a closed-door meeting with Lorayne, her father-in-law Ramon, and Atty. Jainal. After about twenty minutes, the three stepped out of Velasco's office and were ushered to another room, which was also the room where the Gutierrezes had been waiting. When the two camps passed by each other in the corridor, neither one acknowledged the other's presence.

While Velasco was in his closed-door meeting with Richard, Annabelle, Eddie, Ruffa, Monching, Pilita, and their two lawyers, Atty. Mallari and Atty. Asuncion, and Lorayne was waiting in another room, PEP managed to have a brief conversation with her. (At this point, there was as yet no gag order issued.)

We asked if she was inclined to settle. Lorayne said that despite the prosecutor's offer, she was not. In her words, "Kung ikaw ba iyong namatayan, makikipag-settle ka ba?"

After about ten minutes, Prosecutor Velasco asked Lorayne and Richard to talk to each other in a room adjoining Velasco's office, but not within sight of the others. Their conversation lasted more than 30 minutes, according to Velasco.

The meeting between the actor and the widow was relatively quiet, and no sound escaped the room where they stayed. Both parties were also unwilling to divulge the details of their conversation to the press, more possibly because of the gag order than from a natural reluctance to vent.

After the private conversation between them, an expressionless Richard and an unsmiling Lorayne returned to the prosecutor's office, where they agreed to the prosecutor's proposed 15-day period within which to decide on the possibility of a settlement.

A source who works in the Hall of Justice also told PEP that before the mediation ended, Richard finally affirmed his counter-affidavit. Lorayne also passed and subscribed to her own Letter of Reply.

The gag order prevented PEP from procuring copies of the said documents.

When the press asked Ruffa for her reaction, she said, "Sana kanina bago mag-gag order. Abangan n'yo na lang sa The Buzz."