Give Up Tomorrow (2011)

Directed by: Michael Collins | 95 minutes | documentary

Since the summer of 1997, the sisters Marijoy and Jackie Chiong from Cebu, Philippine, have been missing. Some time later, a girl’s body is found in a valley near the city, she has been raped and murdered. It is believed to be Marijoy Chiong. It does not take long before seven boys from the region are arrested as suspects in this gruesome murder. One of them is Paco Larrañaga, a student from a high social class, with relatives in the opposition. He was once involved in a riot, which made his name known to the police, but Paco cannot have committed the murder at all, because at the time of the murder he was three hundred kilometers away, at the University of Manila. His fellow students can confirm that. But the corrupt judiciary in the Philippines is unmatchable, even if all the evidence proves Paco and his co-defendants are innocent.

‘Give Up Tomorrow’ (2011) tells the incredible but true story of Paco, who has been incarcerated for over thirteen years for a murder he did not commit. The case soon turns out to be an accumulation of miscarriages of justice. The father of the Chiong sisters turns out to have worked for the notorious drug lord Peter Lim and has his daughters disappear from the face of the earth just a few days before he is supposed to testify against his former boss. The body found in the valley doesn’t even belong to Marijoy Chiong. The judge hearing the case ignores the testimonies of Paco’s fellow students. He is also corrupt to the core. The Chiong family also has a relative in President Estrada’s staff, so Paco’s family cannot knock on his door either. Mother Chiong, meanwhile, extensively seeks out the media and manipulates public opinion. Even before the defense is discussed, a shamefully subjective reconstruction is shown on the national channel: Paco and his family are caught in a net of corruption, prejudice and powerlessness and the death penalty is even threatening. Yet they continue to fight for justice to the very end.

Only shortly before the credits is it revealed that Marty Syjuco, the film’s producer, is distantly related to the Larrañaga family. It only makes the passion with which this documentary was made even more understandable. On the basis of interviews, newspaper clippings, newsreel footage and archive material, a picture is sketched of the powerless situation in which the Paco’s family finds themselves. Being opposed by everything and everyone, that must be downright hell. While developments follow each other in rapid succession, you as a viewer roll from one surprise to the next. Certainly the false testimony of an ex-criminal, which ultimately determines the conviction (or does so with at least believe), makes you fall from your chair in disbelief. Of course the makers of ‘Give Up Tomorrow’ send you in a certain direction, but the facts don’t lie: that Paco and his co-defendants were convicted on the basis of this ‘evidence’ is too bizarre for words. Director Michael Collins builds up his film in a compelling, almost exciting way. No wonder this documentary won the Audience Award at the Movies That Matter Festival 2012.

It’s not often that in a murder trial you feel more compassion for the mother of the suspect than for the mother of the victim, but ‘Give Up Tomorrow’ is such a film. Collins and Syjuco convincingly exonerate Paco Larrañaga and his six co-defendants. For the viewer at least, because the Philippine court appears adamant, certainly as long as Estrada is in power. The miscarriages of justice these guys face are unbelievable, so unfair. ‘Give Up Tomorrow’ is a documentary that will make you flap your ears: is this really happening? Are there countries where so much injustice can be done to someone? Amazing and immersive!