Judge takes two-week break from Ampatuan trial

MANILA, Philippines - The Ampatuan massacre trial will be suspended for two weeks next week after the judge hearing the case filed for vacation leave to avail herself of the benefit under the Magna Carta for Women.

Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 announced in open court Wednesday that she will be taking a two-week leave and the trial will be suspended starting Sept. 14.

A prosecutor said if Reyes does not avail of the benefit, it will be forfeited.

During Wednesday’s hearing at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, the cross-examination of prosecution witness Haikal Mangacop was stalled after he said he was having a hard time comprehending the question posed to him by defense lawyers.

The question deals with Mangacop’s account of the few hours before the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre took place.

Defense lawyers accused Mangacop of being selective in answering their question but prosecution lawyers said the problem is the language barrier between the witness and court-appointed interpreter Tenex Rachman, a linguist from the University of the Philippines.

Though both are natives of Maguindanao, the interpreter spoke “classic” Maguindanaon while Mangacop is conversant in the language’s “common” form, prosecutors said.

Solis-Reyes then granted the prosecution’s motion to present another witness, Norodin Macauyag, a farmer who saw armed men roaming the outskirts of Ampatuan town a day before the massacre.

He identified three of the more than 60 suspects who were brought into the courtroom under heavy security.

Among those Macauyag said he saw in Ampatuan town were Chief Inspector Sukarno Dikay, the deputy police superintendent of Maguindanao, and two militiamen, Tayag and Salik Bungkala.

Dikay tried to hide his face behind a post but the witness saw him and pointed to him as among the armed men who were waiting for the convoy led by the wife of then Buluan vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu, who was supposed to file her husband’s certificate of candidacy for the Maguindanao gubernatorial race.