Maguindanao massacre trial: Defense lawyer's laugh irks prosecutor

Prosecution lawyers in the Maguindanao massacre trial said they were offended by how their colleagues from the defense panel treated a complainant while she was on the witness stand on Thursday. Prosecutors were particularly irked when a defense lawyer burst into laughter directed at the prosecution in the middle of the trial, and when the defense denied seeing a witness turn emotional. Everything started when Lerma Palabrica, mother of massacre victim Mercy Palabrica, during her testimony told the Quezon City court hearing the murder case that their family has so far incurred a total of P120, 000 in expenses in connection with the filing of the murder case against the 197 suspects. She added that she had all these expenses notarized. Defense lawyer Paris Real, legal counsel for Sajid Ampatuan, requested a copy of the notarized document so he could review it and use it as basis for his cross examination next time. However, private prosecutor Gemma Oquendo, who was conducting direct examination, told the court Palabrica would be "incompetent" to testify on the document because she was not the one who notarized it. After hearing Oquendo's explanation, defense lawyer Paris Real, legal counsel for suspect Sajid Ampatuan, said, "We would like to stipulate that the prosecutor admitted the incompetence of the witness to testify." His fellow defense lawyer Andres Manuel followed suit and made the same stipulation. However, Oquendo ended up taking back her original statement about the witness' "incompetence," eliciting loud laughter from Manuel, with other defense lawyers smiling. "I commend the defense for their laughter... I commend the defense for terrorizing the mother of a daughter who was killed in a massacre," Oquendo said. When Oquendo further asked Palabrica about her daughter's source of income, Palabrica said Mercy was a clerk in the city government office in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat. As she was saying this, Palabrica's voice started to break as she wiped her face, apparently shedding some tears. However, defense lawyers, seated away from Palabrica, butted in and noted that they did not observe her shedding a tear, prompting Oquendo to request the court interpreter - who was standing beside the witness - to describe the mother. "The witness is wiping her face and she is teary-eyed," the interpreter told the court. After the hearing, Oquendo and the other members of the prosecution team blasted the defense for trying to make it appear that the witness did not turn emotional during her testimony. "Wala na sa akin iyong iyong awayin ako nila, pare-pareho lang naman kaming abugado. Pero ang ginanun kasi nila ay iyong witness. Ang bastos na nila eh," a visibly irate Oquendo later told reporters. Aside from the P120,000 she incurred from the massacre case, Palabrica refused to give an amount as to how much money she wanted for moral and exemplary damages, saying "no amount could replace the life of my daughter." — LBG/HS, GMA News