By Ferdinand Fabella

The preliminary investigation of the adultery case filed against a judge in Makati City and his mistress has hit another snag after the investigating prosecutor reset the hearing to Jan. 20.

Executive Judge Henry Laron of the Makati Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 65, and Melissa Tuvillo, 37, both filed separation motions to extend the deadline in filing their counter-affidavits, said City Prosecutor Lody Tantioco.

The respondents were only represented by their counsels in Tuesday’s scheduled hearing.

Tantioco said he found the requests for extension “meritorious” even as the deferment was the third since last Nov. 25 when Tuvillo’s seaman-husband Wilfredo filed his complaint of eight counts of adultery before the Makati Prosecutors Office.

He said his wife of 17 years, by whom he has four children, admitted to the illicit affair, which lasted from November 2005 to January last year.

Sought for comment, Laron declined to face the media, indicating through his staff that he would answer the charges in the “proper forum.”

An assistant said Laron got a copy of Tuvillo’s complaint only on Jan. 5, the day before the hearing, or more than a month after the case was filed before the prosecutors office.

The staff said Laron only knew about the preliminary hearing through published reports in the media.

Laron’s office is on the 14th floor of the Makati City Hall, three floors below the prosecutors office.

The preliminary hearing had been reset twice last December, with Tantioco citing the non-appearance of the respondents.

Melissa had admitted to the affair, but claimed that Laron blackmailed her into continuing their relationship by threatening to divulge it to her family on top of asking her some money.

In her administrative complaint against Laron for graft and immorality, she claimed giving him $1,000 a month.

“I’m ready to get convicted and go to jail if this is the only way to ease the pain I have caused to my husband and family. ’Wag sana kaming pamarisan [Let no one repeat our folly],” the 37-year-old businesswoman said in an interview.

Unmoved, Laron had asked the Supreme Court to junk her complaint.

“At that time, I had been married for 17 years, and my wife was in the United States attending to her ailing father. Melissa was likewise then without a husband as Mr. Tuvillo was out at sea. She was aware of my marital status and that I have three sons,” he said in his comment submitted to the Office of the Court Administrator.

“We were both mature lonely people whose marriages had lessened sheen. She brought me a sense of soul connection, understanding, and great company,” he said of Melissa.