Today in History: Why Revisiting Paco Larrañaga's UNJUST Arrest is Still a Must Until Today

A diagram found on Facebook, apparently owned by
the late Miguel "Juan" Del Gallego y Ripoll

I have updated my review of the documentary Give Up Tomorrow more than once. The late Charles Edward P. Celdran even called it a trial by publicity. I could remember the shocked face I made when was told that Francisco Juan G. Larrañaga was innocent. What amazed me is that my friend (I will not mention his name) was also with Paco on that night. Cebu City Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin N. Garcia was among the many witnesses who testified that Paco was in school.

There's no denying that Paco himself had previous cases. But the basis of making Paco a suspect can be very loose. There was his alleged kidnapping of a certain Rochelle Virtucio. It's possible that Rochelle never saw the faces of the real perpetrators of the kidnapping attempt. How in the world was Paco suddenly identified as the suspect? It's probably because Paco had a bad reputation it was easy to pin the crime down on him. Was it because Paco had some fights? It's not denied by Atty. Florencio O. Villarin, the former NBI head, that Paco had some of his fights. I don't know if Villarin could verify that Paco tried to kidnap Rochelle or not. Right now, Villarin is retired in his late 80s and he may not remember things clearly as before. Even if Paco did try to kidnap Rochelle before--the fact was he was in Manila when the crime happened. However, that's a loose basis for arresting Paco and the six co-accused.

It was alleged that Paco courted Marijoy. It seems that the only suspect who courted one of the sisters was Josman Aznar. There's no evidence that Josman courted the presumed late Jacqueline Jimenea Chiong. If ever, I believe Jacqueline herself is the victim of a body never found murder case. Jacqueline's body may have been disposed of effectively by the real perpetrators. It's possible for Josman to court Jacqueline while Paco never knew the Chiong sisters. It's like my friend can be courting this girl but I'd never know anything about the girl or the girl's family. It seems to be what happened why it was alleged that Paco courted Marijoy. I believe Josman did court Jacqueline while the rest never heard of the Chiong sisters.

There were pictures (and negatives) that proved Paco was indeed in Quezon City. I remembered running into some idiot woman on Facebook who insisted that the Supreme Court decision was more reliable than the documentary. I wonder if this woman (only known as "Nam Nam") actually watched the documentary as she claims? She even erroneously calls Marty Syjuco, Paco's cousin, when that guy is the brother of Paco's brother-in-law. Did she even realize that Hilario G. Davide Jr. was related to Thelma Jimenea-Chiong by marriage? Did she even realize that the late Judge Martin Ocampo didn't have the evidence examined before dismissing them? Any good judge will have them examined rather than jump to conclusions. If the judge wanted to make sure that the 35 witnesses were lying--why not cross-examine them? Why dismiss them immediately? I don't need to be a lawyer to understand that's a violation of the fair rules of law!

The arrest itself was already unlawful to start with. Why did the people who arrested Paco even ignore the records? There was the record of the Center of Culinary Arts that Paco was indeed in school. Paco even went back to Cebu to clear his name. Does that look like the action of a guilty person? True, Paco did deserve some legal action against him in the past. However, you can never achieve justice for the two sisters who suddenly went missing (and I believe both are dead) by arresting the wrong people.

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