Questions
The film documentary “Give Up Tomorrow” is probably something you should see. There are hard and valuable lessons to be gleaned from it. They range from how movie-documentaries ought to be made to how our police and justice system ought to be better than what it is. Not that these lessons are clearly stated. You would have to look beyond the movie itself to get at them.
The surprising thing is how after a lapse of 15 years the case of the Chiong sisters and Larranaga et al is still very much current in our consciousness. There is that lack of distance between us and what we are watching which gets in the way of our full appreciation of the movie. Movies ordinarily suspend disbelief. They remove us from our own individual reality, the reality of the theater, and then absorb us into the reality which the movie constructs for us onscreen. But this is an almost impossible thing to achieve in this case.
It is possible it might be able to do this elsewhere. But in Cebu, this appreciation would have to be peculiar. Here is where the events actually took place. The demarcation between the realities are difficult to get over. We cannot help but ask ourselves as we watch: Is this a disinterested presentation of documented facts or are the movie makers trying to convince us to assume a particular moral position?
The problem with moral positions is that its prerequisite is the conviction that we know enough facts to form an acceptable judgement. This case has always raised more questions than answers from the beginning up until now. Does “Give Up Tomorrow” provide new answers to the old questions? Not by any means. But it does succeed in presenting a current synthesis of old questions.
The primordial question is, of course, whether or not we truly want these old questions answered in the first place.
Here was a situation that seemed to pit old Spanish elite against their Chinese counterparts. That is a clearly racist appreciation. And yet there it was in the back of our head from beginning up until now. And yet we knew immediately as we do now this sort of reasoning cannot have a place here. Too much was at stake for people too young to be dealing with these things. But there is no narrative that can entirely be removed from harsh reality and history. And in a sense, the event and the movie itself only shows Cebu society for what it is, racist warts and all. Movies, especially documentaries, are supposed to do just that. And so in this case one must presume the movie succeeded.
Article continues after this advertisementBut beyond that, it hardly presents anything new at all, only more questions than answers. And the funny thing is that some of these questions are not at all beyond the reach of answers.
Article continues after this advertisementWas the body found in the Tan-awan ravine between Carcar and Barili really that of Marijoy? How could it have been anybody else’s? Someone quickly retorted. And yet there are technologies that could very well be applied to determine this beyond reasonable doubt.
What keeps us from doing this? Well, to start with there are legal technicalities. The case has already been appealed and resolved at the level of the Supreme Court. And so there is no basis for seeking a court order to exhume the body and then do additional forensic tests. And they did that already and still the questions.
The body bore sperm samples. So why couldn’t these determine the identities of those who perpetrated the rape and murder? And then what of the manner by which the case was investigated and tried? What about the judge’s alleged suicide or murder soon after he handed down his guilty verdict? And why were there so many young people, 15 years older now, who still swear they were with Larrañaga in Manila that fateful night when the Chiong sisters disappeared? Why is truth so indeterminate for us? And why do we seem to bungle every opportunity to get at it? It seems the height of our collective incompetence as a civilized society.
And yet, after watching the movie we cannot help but ask ourselves: Couldn’t these very same things happen to us and our children? It seems we have absolutely no protection against it. Our children could be innocent and yet be unfairly judged that way. At the other extreme of that: Our children could be so victimized and after everything we would find no justice. We would not even know what truly happened. We can only watch as the tragic event of their passing drifts into myth. This, while young people grow old in jail. Who can tell without a doubt whether they are innocent or not? No one it seems. This certainly is not how civilized societies conduct themselves. And yet there it is. To put it in a better way: Here we are! In a sense, we give up our own tomorrow that way.
