How the Analog Age May Have Helped Muddy Up the Chiong Sisters Case

TV Worth Watching

The Regional Trial Court hearing in the Chiong Sisters Case concluded on May 5, 1999. It makes me feel strange that I knew some people who personally knew the star suspect, Francisco Juan G. Larrañaga, and even the Chiong Sisters. One of my friends, as I said, I will not mention names to protect their privacy. Back on June 7, 1998, the Chiong Sisters, namely the late Marijoy Jimenea Chiong and her older sister, Jacqueline Jimenea Chiong, went missing. Two days later, a body that was assumed to be Marijoy was found in Carcar. However, the defense later disputed the body. Sadly, the body has been cremated, which means any chances of verifying its identity may no longer be possible. 

I didn't mind the case too much until someone told me, "Do you still remember Paco Larrañaga? He's innocent!" It blew my mind to know that Hubert Webb was innocent, and so was Paco? What? That one truly caught my mind. I feel like revisiting the case. I watched the controversial documentary called Give Up Tomorrow. GMA-7 later reuploaded several of its episodes of Case Unclosed, including the Chiong Sisters episode, originally shown on October 16, 2008. That would be 10 years and 10 months after the trial began in 1998, when the sisters went missing in 1997. The trial became so controversial that common sense was thrown out of the window. 

In fact, the Calvento Files even had a TV dramatization before the defense could present their case. In short, if people wnated a recap of the Chiong Case, the only time you could get it was the Calvento Files episode. Why this tape somehow "remains missing" may not be fully explained. 

This would be because of the analog age. Unlike today, there's already a digital trail. However, back then, much of the evidence that proved Paco was innocent had no digital trail. We can think of the evidence like:

1. School logbooks, and Paco was forced to rely on memory to defend his innocence.
2. The attendance sheets proved that Paco was in school. It didn't seem that the school at that time had an electronic database for attendance or login/logout, which makes the whole excuse of "tampering" effortless to do.
3. Paco's plane ticket proved that he wasn't in Cebu on June 16, 1997, making it impossible for him to commit the crime. The one-hour argument falls flat further. However, I heard databases back then weren't as powerful and could be accused of "being hacked". 
4. The forensic experts of the defense actually wanted to have the body found in Carcar examined. This was because a record of 5'0 (the body) and Marijoy (5'4) is a scientific error. It's either that the prosecution wrote the wrong number or that the body was definitely not Marijoy. 

I was only 13 years old when the Chiong Case happened. More often than not, we were told to "just focus on our studies". It was still that idiotic K+10 era. The best way to get updates on the Chiong Case back then was, namely, news (which may have suffered a delay of 24 hours or more) and the newspapers. However, for a student, the priority was to memorize tons of information, regurgitate it, and then get a good grade. The education system in practice never cared if you really learned or you didn't. That kind of mindset hit the people for generations. My parents were also students during the martial law years, which may have created the intergenerational lack of common sense. 

Now, with this update from ABS-CBN News, the same network that featured the Calvento Files episode. This also gives us details of the suspects. I would suggest watching this one too. It's revealed that Rowen Adlawan died in 2021. This reveals the heavy injustice that happened when two sisters disappeared, died, and the real suspects are probably enjoying life out there. 

Right now, we need to review these lessons as we can use the digital age to prevent casualties like this!