Francisco Juan "Paco" Larranaga, one of the six convicted...

Francisco Juan "Paco" Larranaga, one of the six convicted perpetrators in the controversial rape-slay of Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in 1997, asked the Supreme Court to reverse its February 3 ruling elevating his sentence from two life terms to death by lethal injection. Larranaga, a member of the influential and powerful Osmena clan in Cebu, asked the Court to conduct a hearing on the case before the Supreme Court en banc, or order a retrial of the case, and eventually acquit him from the charges. "We submit that in the case at bar, a case described by this Court as Cebu's trial of the century, the criminal justice system was so influenced by the gruesome allegations, the attendant publicity, the inevitable politics, and so many other untold factors, that the judge molded the facts and law to reach a publicly acceptable, but unfair and unjust result," Mr. Larranaga said in his 74-page motion for reconsideration. "We submit that accused Larranaga should be acquitted and set free. We submit that, at the very least, he deserves a retrial under fair and impartial circumstances," he told the Court. Convicted with Larranaga were Josman Aznar, Rowen Adlawan, Alberto Cano, Ariel Balansag, James Anthony Uy, and James Andrew Uy. They were sentenced to two life terms by the late Cebu City Regional Trial Court Judge Martin Ocampo on May 5, 1999 for the kidnapping and rape of the Chiong sisters in July 1997. The Supreme Court, in a February 3 decision, affirmed the guilt of all the seven accused and raised the sentences of six of them to death.