Filtered By: Showbiz
Showbiz

Film on Spanish-Filipino rape-slay convict wins Tribeca festival award


UPDATED 4:30 P.M. — A documentary film about the Philippines' most high-profile double rape-slay case in the late '90s involving a scion of a prominent family won the Audience Award in the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival. Michael Collins’ ‘Give Up Tomorrow’ is centered on Juan Francisco “Paco" Larrañaga – a dual citizen of both the Philippines and Spain – who was convicted for the kidnap, rape and murder of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in Cebu on July 16, 1997. In 2009, Larrañaga – a great-grandson of the late President Sergio Osmeña Sr. – was transferred to Spain under the Philippine-Spain Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement, allowing him to continue serving his sentence in Spanish jail. Until today, Larrañaga insists on his innocence. According to the film's official website, the film is “about a high-profile miscarriage of justice and its unfolding international repercussions." While centered on Larrañaga, the film also highlights a “huge crisis in the Philippine criminal justice system." Secret filming Interviews with Larrañaga, his supporters, as well as archival footage of the trial’s media coverage are also featured in the film. Secret filming was also done in the New Bilibid prison to show audiences the conditions inside the penitentiary. The film is part of the Give Up Tomorrow campaign, which is headed by the film's director and producer tandem of Collins and Marty Syjuco. The campaign was launched alongside the world premier of the documentary. The film’s producer, Marty Syjuco, was close to the action as his brother is the husband of Larrañaga’s sister. The Supreme Court’s decision to elevate the sentence to a death-row conviction roused Syjuco to take on the project, according to an interview in the Tribeca Film Festival website. Marty Syjuco is the older brother of ‘Ilustrado’ author and 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize winner Miguel Syjuco. In 2004, the two decided to quit their jobs and fly to the Philippines. They would eventually realize that telling Larrañaga’s story wasn’t as easy as they had imagined. They resorted to hiding cameras in paper bags because filming in prison is not allowed. Still, Syjuco and Collins ended up with 300 hours of footage, of which only 90 minutes made it to the final cut. Another highlight of the process, the two shared in the same interview, was their interview with Thelma Chiong, the mother of the two rape-slay victims. “The melodrama is unbelievable," said Collins of the footage of Thelma's crying fits during the trial on her daughters’ murder. For Syjuco and Collins, the film’s entry into the festival and the subsequent award it has garnered have served to bring Larrañaga’s cause out in the open. “Having a launching ground like Tribeca is a dream come true for us, because it’s such a high profile festival and there are things that can only happen in New York. Everybody is here," said Collins. Rape-murders of the Chiong sisters A 2008 feature by GMA News' defunct "Case Unclosed" took a look at the Chiong murder case, which concluded in 2004 when the Supreme Court declared Larrañaga and six others guilty and sentenced them to death. Two years later in 2006, all death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The Chiongs maintain that Larrañaga is guilty and continue to express their disapproval of his transfer to Spain in 2009. “If you committed a crime in the Philippines, you are jailed in the Philippines," she said. The defense for the case, however, insisted that crucial evidence and testimonies were not admitted in court. According to Reprieve, a UK-based anti-death penalty organization, and several other testimonies, Larrañaga was not in Cebu on the day of the crime. But in July 21, 2005, the Philippine Supreme Court had rejected Larrañaga’s alibi that he was in Quezon City when the crime was committed in Cebu. — MRT/LBG, GMA News
LOADING CONTENT