Give Up Tomorrow

In the summer of 1997, Marijoy Chiong and her sister Jacqueline Chiong disappeared from their home on the Philippine island of Cebu. Two days after they were reported missing, their bodies were found, and coroners determined they were severely beaten and raped before they died. Paco Larranaga was one of seven men charged with kidnapping the Chiong sisters before they were abused and thrown off a cliff. Larranaga was found guilty and given two life sentences, and when his sentence was revised in 2004 to include rape, he was given the death penalty. However, there were serious questions regarding Larranaga role in the murders, particularly since eyewitnesses and photographic evidence confirmed he was several hundred miles away from the scene of the crime at the time of the killings. But sensational news reporting, ethnic biases, political influence and police corruption conspired against Larranaga, and even though the United Nations Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International have both called for Larranaga to be released, in 2011 he remained behind bars. Director Michael Collins explores how Larranaga came to be convicted for a crime he did not commit and the efforts to see justice done in the documentary Give Up Tomorrow. The film received its North American premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival., When a member of a powerful Filipino family is accused of murder, the legal system in the Philippines is put to the test.