The lawyer of Francisco Juan “Paco” Larrañaga, one of the men convicted for the Chiong rape-murder case, announced yesterday that they plan to seek executive clemency from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
In an interview with ABS-CBN, lawyer Sandy Coronel said: “We’re just hoping that the president will hear us out and grant executive clemency. These kids have been in prison for twenty years. Maybe it’s time [to grant them freedom].”
Coronel clarified that the online petition to revisit the case, which one of Larrañaga’s friends also shared on Facebook, did not come from their camp. “The petitions were initiated by the public. We didn’t start that. But these petitions will not be wasted because we will bring it to the proper forum,” she said.
The lawyer said that a re-trial is out of the question. She told GMA News in an interview: “We don’t want a re-trial because that’s going to be difficult….We have to bring Paco home for hearings. Of course if there’s a trial we’re not sure how long it will last.”
READ: Netizens call for ‘Jacqueline Comes Home’ boycott, say true crime film contains false info
However, Thelma Chiong, the mother of the victims Marijoy and Jacqueline, told ABS-CBN that Larrañaga’s plea for clemency will just fall on deaf ears.
In a text message, she said in a mix of Filipino and English: “Duterte is the fourth president whom they will deal with. Duterte hates drugs and criminals. The case is closed, there’s nothing they can do about it. Pardon is a long shot because they came from death row.”
Coronel also called on the president to investigate the alleged links of Dionisio, Thelma’s husband, with rumored drug lord Peter Lim.
One of the conspiracy theories surrounding the case is that Dionisio worked for Lim.
She told ABS-CBN: “Maybe with this government’s renewed interest in curbing criminality that’s related to drugs, they can investigate this personality [Dionisio].”
In 1997, sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline were raped and killed after they were abducted from Ayala Center in Cebu City. A body believed to be Marijoy’s was discovered in a ravine in the neighboring town of Carcar. To this day, Jacqueline’s body hasn’t been found.
The documentary Give Up Tomorrow argues that Larrañaga is innocent of the crime. It maintains that he was in Quezon City on the day that the crime took place, an alibi supported by his classmates and teachers.
Give Up Tomorrow resurfaced online after the recently released true crime film Jacqueline Comes Home faced an overwhelming backlash from netizens who believed that Larrañaga was a victim of a frame-up and a biased judicial system.
At present, Larrañaga, who was transferred to a prison in Spain in 2009, works part-time as a chef. He is the great-grandson of former president Sergio Osmeña.
READ: Actors, director, of ‘Jacqueline Comes Home’ react to social media backlash
Meanwhile, on Wednesday last week, actor Niño Muhlach apologized to Larrañaga for portraying him “as a drug crazed maniac” in the now-defunct true-crime show Calvento Files.
In a Facebook post, Muhlach wrote: “[A]fter watching GIVE UP TOMORROW it made me feel guilty for putting him in a bad light. But as an actor i had to follow what the script required from me. We all know the truth by now!”
