Evelio Javier murder suspect spared deportation from Canada

Fugitive Rodolfo Pacificador has been spared deportation from Ottawa after the Federal Court of Canada ordered the Immigration and Refugee Board to hear his bid for refugee status for the third time. Pacificador has been tagged as the possible gunman behind the high-profile assassination in 1986 of Evelio Javier, Harvard-educated governor of Antique and political campaigner for Corazon Aquino during the snap presidential elections against then President Ferdinand Marcos. In the last seven years, the federal refugee board has twice refused Pacificador’s asylum application, saying it was unlikely he would be tortured or persecuted in the Philippines if he is deported, considering that his father, Arturo, was not abused or subjected to harsh prison conditions before or after his murder trial. The federal court ordered yet another refugee hearing by another panel of immigration adjudicators based on the argument that just because Pacificador's father was not poorly treated does not mean his son won't be, Montreal’s Gazette reported on Thursday. The 51-year-old fugitive from the Philippine justice system has been accused of orchestrating the murder of Javier and the attempted murder of four others during the election period, helping fuel the so-called Edsa 1 that led to the ouster of Marcos. His father, Arturo, was a political ally of Marcos, the country's president for 20 years. He held public office for a long time, including being named Minister for Public Works and Highways in 1984. Rodolfo worked in his father's office and developed his own political base in Antique. Both father and son were active Marcos supporters in the heated 1986 snap presidential election and arch rivals of reformist Javier in the province. Four days after the Feb 7, 1986 snap election, Javier was gunned down while monitoring ballot counting in San Jose town, amid allegations of vote-rigging. Masked men in two vehicles pulled up and opened fire on him while he was at the town plaza. Javier ran across the square and down an alley, seeking refuge in a public toilet. The gunmen apparently followed a trail of his blood. He used his back to hold the door shut while gunmen riddled it with bullets. Struck 24 times, Javier slumped dead to the concrete floor. After Marcos was toppled on Feb. 26, 1996, Pacificador left the Philippines and traveled to Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States before crossing into Canada on Sept. 29, 1987, and claiming refugee status. He has held the distinction of being one of Canada’s infamous asylum-seekers. His asylum plea has been one of the longest and most complex political asylum battles in Canadian history, according to the Gazette. Six years after the Philippines signed an extradition treaty with Canada, Pacificador was arrested and ordered deported by Canadian authorities in 1996, but spent seven years in a Toronto jail as his lawyers fought his extradition. They claimed their client would not receive a fair trial and could be tortured in the Philippines. Pacificador’s father, Arturo, a known political warlord, has been prosecuted in the country for allegedly masterminding Javier's assassination. Arturo ran but lost in the last gubernatorial race in Antique. He was acquitted in 2004 of criminal charges in the Javier murder. Five years ago, the Ontario Court of Appeals overturned the Ministry of Justice's extradition order on Rodolfo on the ground that he would not get a fair and speedy trial in the Philippines, based on the experience of his father who was placed on house arrest for 10 years while awaiting his own trial. Pacificador appealed the order, and, in 1999, an Ontario judge accepted that his right to liberty and security guaranteed under the Charter of Rights would be violated if he were sent home. “It was the first time a Canadian appeal court had quashed a ministerial extradition order," the Gazette noted. “The Supreme Court of Canada refused Ottawa's request to overturn the Ontario decision." Reports from Canada said Pacificador has since married and has a child. - GMANews.TV