According to lawyer Reynaldo Agranzamendez, head of the team of private prosecutors representing the Campbell family, “Mrs. Campbell’s testimony was intended to show the picture of an aggrieved family and to describe the character of Julia Campbell as a person."

Mrs. Campbell was the only witness presented when the trial pushed through in the afternoon of Aug. 21 after the reported plea bargain offer by the defense did not materialize. Reports were rife that the defense might offer a guilty plea to a lesser offense in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Duntugan, 25, admitted killing the 40-year-old Campbell after she allegedly bumped into him while she was on her way back to her rented cottage at Batad village in Banaue town. He said he tought it was a neighbor with whom he had a grudge that he had hit with a stone.

Julia Campbell was killed on April 8 while hiking in the village of Batad in Banaue town. Her body was later found in a shallow grave in Batad on April 18.

Agranzamendez described Mrs. Campbell and her sibling Geary, 42, as composed, and prepared for the.

During their two-day visit to Ifugao for the trial, mother and daughter finally saw part of what Julia came to see before she met her death at the hands of Duntugan. They told reporters “we hope to be back in the future to see these wonderful places in Ifugao.”

From their room at the View Inn Hotel at Banaue town proper, Linda and Geary said they caught a glimpse of patches of Banaue’s famed terraces.

In her court testimony, Linda said she and Julia had planned to come to Banaue during the mother’s visit to the Philippines in August 2006.

The plan, however, did not push through. Julia came alone to Ifugao during the last Lenten break.

In an interview with reporters, Campbell thanked persons who have helped them, especially their Filipino lawyers who, they said, have been doing their best in the family’s pursuit of justice for Julia.

They maintained that murder was committed in Julia’s death.

Prosecution lawyers presented their second witness, Melvin Chorhangon, the 14-year old boy from Batad whose statement led police investigators to tag woodcarver Duntugan as a suspect in the killing.

According to Chorhangon, he saw Duntugan emerge from the bushy side of a cliff — where the body was found — as the boy was walking along the mountain trail leading to Batad in the morning of April 9.

During the cross-examination by defense lawyer Pedro Mayam-o, Chorhangon admitted, however, that he did not personally see the killing, and that he learned of the killing only through television newscasts.

In Baguio City, Ifugao Governor Teodoro Baguilat Jr. said the Campbell case alone had not disrupted his province’s tranquility. He made the statement in a report to the Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council during its session in Baguio on Wednesday.

He said Ifugao dealt with only 22 crimes between January and July 2007, compared to the 51 cases recorded by police in the same period in 2006.

Despite Campbell’s murder, the province saw a 60 percent drop in its crime statistics, he said. But the province’s crime solution rate only stood at 86 percent for the first seven months, slower than last year’s 89 percent in the same period.

Baguilat said the Campbell case tested the effectivity of Ifugao’s Tourism-oriented police force, which received a commendation from US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney at the close of the murder investigations.