PHL documentary wins top prize at NY's Tribeca Film Fest

A Philippine documentary, "Give Up Tomorrow," was chosen by the audience of the Tribeca Film Festival in the United States as the best feature film, the New York (NY) Times reported. According to the NY Times, the film's director, Michael Collins, an alumnus of the Tribeca Film Institute's All Access program, will receive the Heineken Audience Award and a $25,000 cash prize. “Give Up Tomorrow" is about the case of Francisco Juan "Paco" Larrañaga, a great-grandson of the late Philippine President Sergio Osmeña Sr. and a scion of the prominent Osmeña family. Larrañaga's case Larrañaga was arrested and accused of killing two teenage sisters — Jacqueline and Marijoy Chiong — on July 16, 1997 in Cebu City.

Larrañaga was one of the seven young men that Cebu Regional Trial Court Judge Martin Ocampo on May 5, 1999 found guilty of kidnapping the Chiong sisters. Ocampo sentenced to two life terms each Larrañaga, Josman Aznar (whose family owns a golf and country club and a hospital, among others); brothers James Andrew and James Anthony Uy, Rowen Adlawan; van driver Alberto Caño, and conductor Ariel Balansag. Years later, the Department of Justice approved the transfer of Larrañaga to a penal facility in Spain to serve the remainder of his life sentence. The transfer of Larrañaga, a citizen of Spain by virtue of his father, was under the RP-Spain Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement. - VVP, GMA News