MANILA, Philippines?The private lawyer representing the kin of 14 of the 30 journalists killed on Nov. 23 in Maguindanao was so appalled Wednesday by footage of bodies being unearthed at the massacre site that he rushed to the ladies? rest room to throw up.

Harry Roque, who stands nearly six feet tall, was viewing a video of policemen and civilians digging up bodies of the alleged victims of principal murder suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. when he suddenly rose with a hand cupped over his mouth and, making heaving sounds, ran to the back of the social hall of the Noncommissioned Officers? Club in Camp Crame.

Roque ignored the policemen pointing to the entrance of the men?s room a few meters farther and hurried to the ladies? room of the social hall that had been converted into a courtroom for Ampatuan?s murder trial presided over by Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes.

Some reporters seated near the ladies? room suspected that Roque was putting on a show. But the policewomen guarding the entrance of the rest room said Roque had indeed thrown up.

?Yes, the lawyer really vomited,? a young female officer said after Roque left. ?The janitor fixed things up immediately so there were no signs of his visit.?

Stomach-turning

Roque returned to the courtroom but got up shortly and walked toward the exit, perspiring profusely and looking dazed and exhausted.

He told reporters outside the courtroom that his stomach turned upon seeing footage of body parts being dug up from the mass graves.

?I had to rush to the bathroom because I threw up. I suddenly felt sick after seeing the video. Rather than make a mess of myself, I left,? Roque said.

?I couldn?t take the gory images on the tapes. It was so brutal. I saw the photographs of the victims, but seeing the bodies on the video was different. Only the devil could do such a gruesome crime.?

Asked to describe what he saw, he said: ?Karumaldumal, makahayop at makadyablo (disgusting, savage and evil).?

Roque said his clients had also been advised by a psychologist not to attend the hearing to save them the pain of seeing the video of their murdered kin.

?I?m sure they understand why they should not be here,? he said.

Prosecution lawyers played two 90-minute videos taken at the scene by Sultan Kudarat-based photographer Jerry Atanoso in an effort to press their opposition to bail for Ampatuan.

The first one was taken on Nov. 24, a day after the mass murder, and the second, on Nov. 25.

The videos showed police authorities and concerned civilians digging up the bodies of the 57 victims, mostly women and journalists believed to have been shot by Ampatuan and his men.

Before Roque left, another private lawyer walked out of the courtroom about 40 minutes into the first video.

Gemma Oquendo wept upon reaching the grounds and refused to take questions from reporters.

But in a conversation with another lawyer later Wednesday, she was overheard saying it was taking her too much effort to get over the deaths of her father Catalino Oquendo Jr. and elder sister Cynthia Oquendo, another lawyer.

Gemma Oquendo?s father and sister were among the 57 civilians who joined the convoy of Genalin Mangudadatu on her way to file the certificate of candidacy for governor of her husband, Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu.

The convoy was allegedly blocked by Ampatuan?s men and the 57 people were eventually shot dead.

Oquendo said it was too difficult for her to maintain sobriety when confronted with images of the bloodbath.

Adjectives

Atanoso, photographer of the Sultan Kudarat planning development office, said he made two copies each of both videos and gave a set each to Gov. Suharto Mangudadatu and Director Celso Inga of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Just before the first video was played before Judge Reyes, an argument erupted between State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera and defense lawyer Sigfrid Fortun, with the latter objecting to Navera?s use of the words ?gruesome? and ?gory? in describing the videos.

Fortun said it was up to the court to say if such adjectives could be used to describe the videos, and that the words, if included in the court?s transcripts, could influence its opinion later.

He also asked that the sounds recorded in the videos be muted to eliminate all annotations and opinions of the persons shown.

?I do not understand the relevance of gasps and groans [in the video],? Fortun exclaimed.

Said the judge: ?Can we view the video first.?

Body parts

Groans filled the courtroom as the video showing newspaper-covered corpses scattered around two vehicles was played on a projector provided by the Department of Justice.

When the bloodied face of a dead woman was flashed onscreen, lawyer Oquendo rose looking distressed and was led by three other women away from the projector.

She stayed five minutes more before leaving the courtroom altogether. Oquendo told colleagues she would not go back to see Atanoso?s second video because she had gotten word that it was ?gorier.?

At one point, the video showed the body of a man clad in a green shirt and denims being pulled out of the mass grave.

The left eye, while still visible, was blown out of its socket. There was no hair left and the right side of the face, along with the nose and mouth, was totally blown off.

The next scene showed a woman wearing yellow green pants, red underwear and a green shirt. At one point, Atanoso?s camera zoomed in on the bloodied portion of the left thigh.

It was at this point that Roque rushed out.

Chewing gum

Ampatuan, mayor of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao, was emotionless and seemed to be chewing gum while the images were shown on a wide screen.

When a gold watch on the wrist of one of the victims was shown, he peered closely at the screen as if trying to make out the details.

The utterances made by the people caught on video were drowned by the constant hum of the backhoe used by the Philippine National Police?s scene-of-the-crime operatives (SOCO).

Two backhoes were seen on a video.

The first bore the markings ?acquired under the administration of Andal Ampatuan Sr., governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan members of the province of Maguindanao.?

The prosecution is expected to use this equipment as evidence against the principal suspect.

The second backhoe, provided by the Sultan Kudarat government, was used to dig up the bodies. Dismembered body parts appeared every time this backhoe cleared a portion of the ground.

In the gallery, a woman wearing a shirt marked ?Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption? winced and turned her head away when the video showed a SOCO member transporting by hand a dismembered leg from the excavation site to the area where the corpses were collected.

Victim ID

On two occasions, Atanoso was able to identify the victims recovered from the scene.

He said the corpse dressed in a red shirt and denims, with a badly bruised face and what seemed to be a gaping neck wound, was that of journalist Andy Teodoro.

?I frequently saw him in the [Sultan Kudarat] capitol when there were special occasions held there,? Atanoso said.

He was also able to identify Henry Araneta of radio station dzRH in the second video shown in the afternoon.

Demanded Fortun: ?How can you identify him when the face of the corpse is not seen??

Atanoso replied that Araneta?s shirt with wide stripes was familiar to him because the broadcaster wore it often in visits to the capitol.

The second video also recorded efforts of the SOCO to dig out three vehicles crushed beyond recognition, and which were buried along with the victims.

These included a red Toyota Vios where the ID of one Jhoy Dukay was recovered, a white service vehicle of cable news channel UNTV, and a metallic blue Tamaraw FX.

Judge Reyes ordered a five-minute recess after the presentation of the videos ended at about 2:20 p.m.

Grilling

As in the previous hearing, Fortun questioned the credibility and perceived bias of the new prosecution witness during the two-hour cross examination.

Fortun also grilled Atanoso on the propriety of his taking footage of the crime scene and the exhumation, pointing out that he was an employee of a local government unit headed by a relative of Vice Mayor Mangudadatu.

He asked Atanoso if he had authority to travel to the massacre site in Ampatuan town when he took footage of the exhumation.

When the witness said it was Gov. Suharto Mangudadatu who ordered him to document the recovery of the bodies, Fortun asked for a copy of his travel order.

Atanoso said he did not bring the travel order ?because I thought I would just be testifying about the videos I took.?

Fortun repeatedly asked Atanoso for receipts and documents pertaining to the ownership and sources of the video camera and tapes he used.

He also asked the witness if he knew Vice Mayor Mangudadatu?s kin who were seen in the video.

State Prosecutor Navera objected to Fortun?s questions, saying most of them were ?incompetent, irrelevant, misleading and unnecessary.?

At times, Judge Reyes ordered Fortun to explain why he was asking such questions.

At the end of his questioning, Fortun tried to link Atanoso to the spread of bootleg DVD copies of the exhumation.

?Did you know that bootleg DVD copies of the videos were being sold for P150 apiece as propaganda material against the Ampatuans?? Fortun said.

?No, sir,? Atanoso said.

Navera told the court the ?graphic, gruesome and lurid images? of the victims were meant to corroborate last week?s testimony of Ampatuan Vice Mayor Rasul Sangki. With a report from Associated Press