A Business Graduate's Reviewing History Blog

Jourdan Sebastian Some may remember the Chiong Sisters Case as the "trial of the decade". Before that, some may have remembered the Vizconde Massacre . There was one thing in common between the two trials-- trial by publicity!  Both of them already had a public hungry for the verdict,  even when there was a need for due process .  We need to know what due process is. Respicio & Co. defines it as: Query: What is due process in the context of the Philippine legal system? Due process is a fundamental principle in the Philippine legal system, enshrined in the 1987 Constitution. It ensures that individuals are treated fairly and justly by the law, protecting their rights to life, liberty, and property. Due process consists of two essential components: substantive due process and procedural due process. Substantive Due Process Substantive due process pertains to the fairness of the laws themselve s. It requires that laws enacted by the government must be fair, reasonable, ...

Today is indeed the 35th anniversary of the Vizconde Massacre case . I wrote a previous article where grief was weaponized . The late Lauro Vizconde passed away sometime on February 13, 2016. It was already ten years ago when he died. It's a real pity that Hubert Webb got acquitted but the real killers got free. Grief was weaponized along the way. It was as if you believed that the wrong people were caught, the false dilemma was that you actually support criminals, and that you're not grieving with Lauro.  The Vizconde Massacre Trial, which only started in August 1995, sometime after April 28, 1995. That was when the "star witness" Jessica Alfaro , a self-confessed former drug addict, stepped forward. People were probably either too afraid, too excited, or, in the case of the Vizcondes, they were too perplexed not to notice that Jessica's story wasn't making any sense. However, it happened anyway  when Jessica stepped forward, and the crimes happened. We had t...

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 co...

Today is the fifth death anniversary of Federico "Toto" Natividad. I didn't want to give him too much attention. However, watching Give Up Tomorrow   reminded me of Butakal , a film released in 1999 that was effectively in limbo. The film was downright not wholesome,  and accessing it requires extreme discretion like any R-rated film. The film remains banned from public screening. It seems he was content to let the film "go unscreened" if Case Unclosed's episode on the Chiong Sisters came out a year after the Supreme Court's final decision on his film. I was only able to see the film uploaded on YouTube, and it's no longer available . Natividad's film didn't advertise itself as the "Chiong Sisters Story". The story was pure fiction  based on Davidson Rusia's testimony . The movie may have been a poke at the popular public opinion at that time, that the Chiong 7 were already guilty before they were proven guilty. It turned out t...

Updated: May 9, 2026 Several years ago, Case Unclosed featured an episode about the Chiong Sisters, a few years before Give Up Tomorrow came out. One of the things I could say is that GMA-7 is far less biased than ABS-CBN in news reporting. The late Antonio "Tony" Calvento even aired a dramatization of Davidson Rusia's testimony , which had Niño Muhlach play as Juan Francisco "Paco" Larranaga . It's easy to say, "Unlike you, I read the Supreme Court decision." This came out a year after the controversial case involving the late Federico "Toto" Natividad and his controversial film Animal  had ended in 2007. Apparently, Animal (2004),  which was released as Butakal (1999),  still remains banned. Since I'm not a lawyer nor do I have the temperament to be one in court, I'm simply writing based on common sense .  As I read through the Supreme Court decision , I confess it's a difficult read,  especially since I'm not a lawyer. ...

After many years of self-studying the Chiong Sisters Case , I have written several entries on the matter. In fact, I created what I call an "almost-ever-updating" review on Give Up Tomorrow , which was a documentary that challenged my views. I was hesitant to write this review, as it involves another sensitive issue. Some time later, I wrote an entry discussing another aspect of the Chiong Case, specifically  the issue of the late Federico "Toto" Natividad Jr. himself . I always thought it was an unethical issue. However, I was able to watch the film on YouTube (via a poor quality upload), and it doesn't seem that anyone from Natividad's estate is interested in fighting for the film's right to be distributed , not especially that Case Unclosed already came out in 2008, now available on GMA-7's official YouTube channel . Kara David did a meticulously good job featuring the Chiong mother, the Uy mother , and even another member of the " Run for Pa...