Hello fellow steemians!
This a short opinionated review of mine based on these two movies/documentaries I've watched.
Well, these films are based on a true story which took place in the late 90's.
This case is gaining popularity and controversy until this day.
So much for the year that it happened, it then again rose up to this days due to the steeming topic on drugs
in our country.
But these two films are two opposite point of views or the real scenario.
The Film Jacqueline Comes Home gave favor to the case of the Chiong Sisters, Well in turn, the documentary
"Give Up Tomorrow" gave favor to the case of Pako.
as controversial as it is, it gave a huge impact to the society, Also, A big question came up "Who to believe?"
Let me gave you a short summary of the story before identifying the differences of two films.
The story began when the two Choing sisters (Jacqueline Chiong and Mary Joy Chiong) was found dead in a remote area in Cebu. Their bodies are suspected to have undergone great maltreatment and even rape.
Because of this, an investigation began to took place which lead to the accused "Pako" Larranaga be one of the suspects of the crime. with this accusations, Pako was imprisoned until today.
This story seemed to be an ordinary one, until hearing the sides of both parties, which was detailed in the two said films.
First let me state the first film entitled "Jacqueline Comes Home"
The story began on the two Chiong sisters having close family ties and having dreams of their own.
All seemed wonderful, until the arrival of Pako which was one of the suitors/stalker of MaryJoy Chiong.
Because of Pako's great desire to keep one of the sisters, he planned to have them abducted with the help of his friends
and have them raped and this led to their death.
The movie gave a bad light in favor of the accused.
This movie was released just this month of July which angered the Larranaga family, saying that those were not the facts.
In the other side of the story, the movie "Give Up Tomorrow" was released.
It is more like a documentary. A sewed facts of what actually happened since the day of the accusation until the
trials.
In their side of the story, It is very impossible for Pako to commit such crime.
the first fact presented was that Pako was a culinary student and was currently in Manila during the conduct of the incident.
It was proven through his school records that He was at the school that time and was able to come back
the next day, by this, there is no way he can be at Cebu to do such act.
A great number of witnesses consisting of his classmates attested that he was with them at that time and
want to abolish the accusations, but all these witnesses were not allowed to state that fact to uplift the case of Pako.
Another was that his alleged gang members were unrecognizable to him.
Pako continually state his innocence and still thought that it was all a set up.
Another scenario presented in the documentary was the confessions of Rusia. Who confessed to the court that he was one of those who committed the said crime. He stated that he was there and that Pako was their leader. In contrary to those witnesses in favor of Pako which was his classmates, the court favored the statements of Rusia. Which later on gained praise for stating the truth. The thing is, Pako, never heard of Rusia and therefore insisted that all his statements is a lie. Despite all of this, the court and society favored Rusia even the Chiong Family. Even the mother sent gifts as a sign of gratitude for his honesty. With this, a few months later, Rusia was released.
Well, those were just fragments of what was shown in the documentary. But It's better if you watch it yourself.
AS for me, I am in favor of documentaries stating real accounts of what happened. But it's up to you to decide who you will believe.
How about you, who will you believe?
You may share your thoughts through the comments below.
Also an upvote will be nice.
Thank you and God bless.
