Category Archives: News

One week after Give Up Tomorrow producer Marty Syjuco received the “Ani ng Dangal” Award from the Philippine government for bringing “honor” to the country with the success of our film, he decided to give it back. Paco Larrañaga was recently denied his petition for Pardon, so on March 15th Marty went to the Board of Pardons and Parole to return the award.  He presented a letter to the board members, DVD copies of Give Up Tomorrow,  and gave the following statement:

Madam Chairman, I’m here today to deliver my Ani ng Dangal Award to you and the Board of Pardons and Parole. May it always remind you that no honor can be harvested by any of us as long as the shame of injustice continues.

Paco Larrañaga and six other innocent men have spent 15 years in jail for crimes they did not commit. The real perpetrators continue to roam free. Experts here and abroad say the case was fundamentally warped by politics, patronage, sensationalism, and corruption. Yet all subsequent judgment has been based on that first series of flaws.

I invite oxymetholone for sale you to watch “Give Up Tomorrow” and consider the mountains of evidence and testimonies that were silenced and ignored by the courts and the media. I pray that God will give you the strength to admit a mistake was made. And the courage to prove that your department administers justice, and doesn’t just administer paperwork.

Our government gave me this great honor, which I’m honored to now pass on to the Board of Pardons and Paroles. You alone can address our country’s shame. I hope you’ll do the honorable thing.

Marty Syjuco

Below are 3 recent articles about the Basque Parliament standing by Paco’s innocence and requesting the government ask the Philippines for his Pardon (English Translations and Spanish originals below)

Spanish:

1) Nuevo paso en la lucha por la libertad de Paco Larrañaga

2) Parlamento vasco insta al Ejecutivo central a pedir a Filipinas el indulto para Paco Larrañaga

3) La Cámara vasca pide al Gobierno que gestione el indulto de Paco Larrañaga

English Translations:

ArabTimes

Let Us Compare Mythologies: The Top Filipino Films of 2012

Posted by Richard Bolisay 

SEE ORIGINAL FULL POST HERE

5. GIVE UP TOMORROW, Michael Collins and Marty Syjuco

In hindsight, the Chiong murder case, from the moment it first came to public attention in 1997 to the release of Paco Larrañaga’s death sentence in 2004, was a dog and pony show. It exploded and scattered its shrapnel to every nook and cranny of the Philippine justice system, a grim and painful reminder of an organized snafu that required gods and monsters to accomplish, tightening the knots of an unforgivable criminal gaffe instead of helping loosen them. In Give Up Tomorrow, the situation being dissected is messy. Arguments pile on top of one another incessantly—each of them forming the trajectory towards the center, Paco’s innocence bearing the clearest but most disputed evidence—but the documentary makes a strong and convincing point by showing how clean-cut it is. Producer Marty Syjuco and director Michael Collins are driven by a hazy glimmer of hope, and rather than doing an autopsy they perform a CPR, veering away from mere journalism and carefully guiding the viewer into a cold, unsettling conclusion that pounds the truth that justice, regardless of partakers, shouldn’t be arbitrary. Their film presents a world where the hideous becomes bearable, and this kind of tolerance is more revolting than the crimes and misdemeanors that their seven-year search has managed to uncover.

SEE ORIGINAL FULL POST HERE

Give Up Tomorrow is a compelling look into the plight of Paco Larrañaga, the great-grandson of the late President Sergio Osmeña Sr., who is wrongly accused of murder—and all because he fits the “profile” created by society’s biases.

Four hundred hours of footage were whittled down to a 90-minute documentary that traces the arrest, trial, and incarceration of Paco and seven other men convicted of the rape and murder of Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in July 1997.

SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE