Ala Paredes, the daughter of APO Hiking Society member Jim Paredes, returned to court Wednesday to once again capture courtroom moments in the Maguindanao massacre trial on her sketch pad. The 26-year-old Australia-based artist said the public would still be seeing her over the course of several more hearings as the official courtroom sketch artist. Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez earlier said Ala was not being paid to do the sketching job, adding she was doing it "for the love of the SC." "[I'll still be the artist] for the next few hearings but not throughout the entire hearing of the case," Ala told GMANews.TV after a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City. Paredes, however, could not specify how many more hearings she would be attending.
Artist Ala Paredes shows a new set of sketches she made during the second day of the murder trial of Maguindanao massacre suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr on Wednesday. She was earlier asked by Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez (left) to become the official sketchroom artist for the trial. Mark Dalan Merueñas
The Supreme Court commissioned a sketch artist after the Quezon City Regional Trial Court handling the multiple murder case of Andal Ampatuan Jr. banned any video or audio recording devices during hearings. Members of the media are only allowed to cover the trial using the traditional pen and paper. Ala was only staying in the Philippines for the holidays when she received a call from a friend working at the Supreme Court, who was looking for someone to depict the proceedings through sketches. Ala and her family migrated to Australia in 2006, where she finished Design Illustration from the Sydney Design Center in Emmore.
Ampatuan vice mayor Rusal Sangki (left) is depicted in an artist sketch being escorted to the witness stand during Wednesday's hearing of Andal Ampatuan Jr's murder charges. Mark Dalan Merueñas
On Wednesday's hearing, Ala produced nine sketches from the proceedings - four pieces more than those she came up on January 5, or during the first day of the murder trial. In two of her drawings, Ala depicted Ampatuan town vice mayor Rasul Sangki while he was taking the witness stand. In his testimony, Sangki named Andal Jr. as the mastermind in the gruesome murder of 57 people in Ampatuan town last November 23. Ala also made sketches of the families of the victims of the November 23 massacre, as well as members of the security detail deployed in the courtroom inside the Philippine National Police (PNP) Headquarters in Quezon City.
A sketch by Ala Paredes shows Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr (center), prime suspect in the November 23 massacre in Maguindanao, watching as the prosecution presents a slide show of pictures from the crime scene. Mark Dalan Merueñas
Other sketches that the former commercial model and video jockey made were that of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes and Andal Jr, who in a candid moment was depicted "freshening up." "He (Andal Jr) is refreshing up with a little bottle of white flower," Ala said, pointing to a drawing of the Datu Unsay mayor holding a small container of the embrocation liniment in his hand. - KBK, GMANews.TV
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