Victims’ kin walk out as massacre footage shown in court

Bloated and mangled bodies with heads blown up by bullets being unearthed from shallow pits. The footage was so gory for families of the massacre victims to watch. But Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr, the alleged mastermind in the grisly killings, seemed not to care. On Wednesday, during the third hearing on the November 23 Maguindanao massacre, some of the victims' relatives who could not bear watching the footage walked out of the makeshift courtroom at the Philippine National Police's headquarters in Quezon City In contrast, courtroom observers saw Ampatuan Jr. sitting silently, staring blankly at the screen while the video taken by Jerry Atanoso, a videographer from the Sultan Kudarat provincial government, was being played during the hearing before the sala of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 Presiding Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes. At times, Ampatuan Jr. was also seen yawning, and even falling asleep as if unmoved by a scene that could otherwise stir the strongest of human emotions.

Ampatuan is facing multiple murder charges for the massacre of 57 people in the town named after his powerful clan in Maguindanao. The mayor’s lawyer, Sigfrid Fortun, asked Judge Reyes to have the videos played without audio. “Gasps or other commentaries would influence the viewers as well as the judge," Fortun said. The judge, however, did not grant Fortun’s request. Solis-Reyes, however, restrained the prosecution and its witness from making "commentaries" while describing the footage.
Two tapes were expected to be shown during Wednesday’s hearing that tackled Ampatuan Jr’s petition for bail. The first tape contained a 90-minute footage of the recovery of bodies the day after the brutal killings. The second tape contained another 90-minute footage of the recovery of the bodies on November 25. - with Sophia Dedace/LBG/ARCS/GMANews.TV