Witness breaks into tears as he recounts massacre victims’ ordeal

Even before they were brutally killed at a hilly portion of Ampatuan town on November 23 last year, victims of the Maguindanao massacre were already given a foretaste of terrifying cruelty by their attackers. After the victims' convoy was stopped at a checkpoint at Sitio Malating in Barangay Salman, supposed members of the local police and militiamen manning the checkpoint banged the vehicles, pointed high-powered guns at the passengers and ordered them to alight. Once outside, some of the victims were reportedly either slapped or were hit with rifle butts by the armed men. Female journalists pleaded that they be spared, but their words went unheeded. All these harrowing details recounted by prosecution witness Norodin Mauyag soon proved too much for him, as tears welled up in the middle of his testimony before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Taguig City on Wednesday. Mauyag was telling the court how he saw some of the female journalists in the convoy begging for their lives, when his voice caught. With head bowed down, he wiped tears from his eyes. "Your honor, we would like to put on record that the witness is crying," prosecution lawyer Alexander Suarez told Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221. Did he really cry? But even before the judge could respond, lawyer Sigfrid Fortun, legal counsel for principal accused Andal Ampatuan Jr., butted in and argued that the witness did not seem to be shedding tears. "Your honor, the witness only seemed to have cried upon the suggestion of the prosecution," Fortun said, insisting that Mauyag cried only after Suarez voiced out his observation. Solis-Reyes however agreed with Suarez, saying that she herself observed Mauyag's eyes welling up while he was testifying. "The witness started to cry [even before Suarez pointed it out]." On the second day of his testimony, Mauyag recounted that manning the checkpoint on the day of the massacre were suspects Datu Kanor Ampatuan who is a brother of clan patriarch Andal Sr., Chief Inspector Sukarno Dicay, and around 100 armed policemen and militiamen. During Wednesday's trial, the witness positively identified Dicay in the court room. Mauyag - who lived near the site where the checkpoint was set up - said the armed men stopped around eight "trucks," referring to the electoral convoy of vehicles carrying members of the Mangudadatu family who intended to file Esmael Mangudadatu's certificate of candidacy for the gubernatorial race. Although calling them "trucks," Mauyag would interchangeably use the words "vehicles" and "pick-up van" to refer to the vehicles, explaining that the convoy consisted of four white trucks, a white van, a small red vehicle, and another vehicle with the words "UNTV" on its body. The witness spoke in Maguindanaoan throughout his testimony, which was translated first to Filipino then to English by a court interpreter. Blow-by-blow account Datu Kanor then allegedly ordered his men to force the passengers of the convoy to alight from their vehicles and to gather them in front of a canteen on the side of the highway. Kanor's men then seized the victims' personal belongings including mobile phones and bags. Kanor then ordered three of the drivers of the convoy to go back to their respective vehicles and park them on the side of the road. Shortly after being rounded up in front of the canteen, Andal Jr. arrived and approached the convoy passengers, according to Mauyag. Andal Jr. then ordered the victims to lie facing the ground. "Dapa! (Lie prone!)" Mauyag quoted Andal Jr. as saying, before he personally frisked the passengers. After frisking, Andal Jr. ordered the people to stand up once more. "Who among you here belong to the Mangudadatus?" Andal Jr. reportedly asked the group. He then grabbed one of the women in the group, told her "matigas ang ulo mo, papatayin kita (You hard-headed one, I’m going to kill you)," and then fired a shot "in between her legs," which did not hit her. The witness described the woman as "maganda, maputi, at matangkad (beautiful, fair-skinned, and tall)." Mauyag said he also saw several female journalists "crying and saying that they be spared since they are from the media." The witness admitted that he too shed tears that day. "I couldn't contain myself and I cried. That was the first time I saw such an incident happen," he told the court. Mauyag said the victims were then ordered to board the vehicles. A woman was separated from the group and brought to the red pick-up van where Datu Kanor was, before the vehicles drove off. Mauyag said he heard Datu Kanor order his men to dismantle the checkpoint. After the incident, Mauyag said he returned to his nearby residence and had lunch. On his way to fetch his family in their other house in the mountains, he said he heard successive shots being fired from afar that lasted a good "20 minutes." As he continued to walk, Mauyag said he chanced upon his neighbor, Rasul, who told him, "Nagkakabarilan na sa bundok (There’s shooting in the mountains)." Maugay hurried toward his family. Before returning to their first home, Mauyag was also told by Rasul's wife, Sarida: "Nords [Mauyag’s nickname, short for Norodin], mayroon kaming nakitang backhoe papuntang bundok (We saw a backhoe driving up the mountain)." Mauyag said he walked further up the road to check Sarida's claim. From afar—about one kilometer based on his estimate—he saw the backhoe. He said he knew he was looking at a backhoe because as a construction worker, he was familiar with such equipment. Not buying it The defense not only doubted Mauyag's crying in court, but also accused the witness of having "rehearsed" his testimony. Fortun noted how Mauyag—who admitted it was his first time to testify in court—seemed to know what to do when he marked landmarks in the sketch of their village without Suarez asking him to during direct examination. Mauyag made the sketch to show the court his location on November 23 when supposed members of the Ampatuan's private army massed along the highway in preparation for the killings. The sketch, drawn on acetate film, was shown in court through an overhead projector. "The reason you did this [make the markings] because you were rehearsed, correct?" Fortun later asked the witness during the defense's cross examination. Mauyag quickly responded: "Hindi po ako tinuruan. Akin lang ito (I was not coached. I did this on my own)." Asked why he placed numbers beside specific landmarks in his sketch, Mauyag said: "Nilagay ko po ito, para maintindihan. Hindi ako tinuruan. Akin lang ito (I placed these to make the sketch more understandable. I wasn’t coached. I did this on my own)." Fortun also expressed doubts that Mauyag did not really understand Tagalog. In recounting how Datu Kanor was coordinating the plan to stop the Mangudadatu convoy on the highway, Mauyag said in his vernacular that he saw Datu Kanor speak over a two-way radio: "Maghanda kayo dahil parating na ang hinihintay natin (Get ready, the people we’ve been waiting for are almost here)." When the Filipino translator used the word "hinihintay (waiting for)," Maugay corrected him by saying "haharangin (will block)," in an apparent effort to emphasize the Ampatuans’ plan to stop the convoy. Fortun then raised his observation: "Your honor, the witness understands Tagalog. That [haharangin] is not the one he suggested a while ago. He pretends to not understand Tagalog."—JV, GMANews.TV