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by Peter Wong‚ Mar. 08‚ 2012
The Chiong Seven case forcefully continues to demonstrate how the scales of the Philippines’ criminal justice system remain unbalanced by the heavy thumbs of criminal influence and political connections. Michael Collins’ powerful documentary “Give Up Tomorrow” recounts the sorry history of this case.

In 1997, the two 20-ish Chiong sisters disappeared from the Philippines province of Cebu. The highly publicized disappearances sparked a massive search that eventually yielded a disfigured and gang-raped female body. Supposedly, this corpse belonged to one of the missing sisters. Public pressure to close the case led police to arrest seven men the media would dub “The Chiong Seven.”

Yet the guilt of alleged ringleader Paco Larrinaga seemed based largely on his family ties to an opposition presidential aspirant. Stronger evidence such as Paco being 350 miles away in Manila when the disappearances occurred would normally support his innocence rather than his guilt. But the combined burdens of media coverage already assuming the seven men’s culpability and a criminal justice system openly using the flimsiest evidentiary straws possible led to Larrinaga and his six co-defendants being imprisoned and even facing execution by lethal injection.

Watching Collins’ chronicle of the Chiong Seven’s case is a grueling ordeal, but not for lack of quality. “Give Up Tomorrow” is an engaging true life film noir from the first frame to the last.

Collins effectively evokes a continual sense of helpless rage in the viewer. For example, Judge Ocampo gives the prosecution’s sole compromised witness excessive courtesies while also actively sabotaging the defense’s efforts to present exculpatory evidence. But unlike the Philippine media which had already found the Chiong Seven guilty, the filmmaker presents his case for Larrinaga’s innocence (and by implication his co-defendants too) without exaggeration.

One particularly infuriating element is the far from innocent behavior of the Chiong parents. The girls’ disappearance occurred just before Mr. Chiong would testify against the powerful drug lord he worked for. Allegedly grieving mother Thelma Chiong’s actions, including dangling career promotions in exchange for the Chiong Seven’s convictions, are less Victim and more Politically Connected Manipulator.

Given the heinousness of Larrinaga’s legal ordeal, it’s amazing that his spirit manages to remain uncrushed. But Paco’s certainty in his innocence and the titular mantra he recites inspires viewers with his emotional strength.

Collins does have family ties to Larrinaga. But his film never editorializes Paco’s innocence. Also, independent individuals and groups have also declared the Chiong Seven received unfair treatment by Philippine law enforcement.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo may no longer treat the Chiong Seven case as a public embarrassment. But the longer the Chiong Seven’s names remain sullied, the longer the entire Philippine criminal justice system remains stalked by the spectre of corruption.

From film critic Cheryl Eddy’s SFIAAFF picks

DOCS AND SHOCKS: MORE FROM THE SF INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

SFIAAFF Documentary fans, prioritize Give Up Tomorrow, Michael Collins’ probing examination of a high-profile murder case in the Philippines. If the Paradise Lost films got your blood boiling, expect to rage even harder at the unbelievably shifty way the events detailed here unfolded.

As with the West Memphis Three, the crime at Tomorrow’s heart is horrific: in 1997, two sisters in their early 20s were kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Or were they? Only one body was found, and it was never quite confirmed that the dead woman was actually one of the missing sisters. Of course, that didn’t stop authorities (almost all of whom had ties to a local drug lord, who was also connected to the victims’ family) from fingering a group of local teens, including Paco Larrañaga — who became the case’s main target, despite the fact that dozens of his culinary-school classmates swore he was with them, hundreds of miles from the crime scene, at the time of the alleged murders.

Give Up Tomorrow offers a searing study of a corrupt court system, and the heartbreak that happens when a cause célèbre falls victim to the short attention span of the international activist community. Without spoiling all of its twists and turns, know that this story is better than any fictionalized crime drama, and more powerfully wrenching for being true.