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Arturo Pacificador: Waiting for History
Jo Martinez-Clemente
Assemblyman Arturo Pacificador had gone to most countries of the world twice as the Philippines’ representative to the International Parliamentary Union during the time of deposed President Ferdinand Marcos. For nine years though, his galaxy shrunk to a corner of the Antique Rehabilitation Center. Accused of masterminding the 1986 murder of former Governor Evelio “Beloy” Javier, Pacificador had been under preventive detention since 1995, until recently.
On October 12, 2004, Judge Rudy Castrojas of the Regional Trial Court Branch 12 in Antique handed down his decision to the 18 year old murder case. Pacificador was acquitted. The prosecution failed to establish his involvement in Javier’s murder “beyond reasonable doubt.”
This was the same premise that freed the former assemblyman from an earlier case where he was similarly tagged as the mastermind. Hi direct involvement or link can not be established to the killing of nine supporters of Javier in Sibalom town on the eve of the May 1984 Batasan Pambansa elections. The decision was penned by Judge Nery Duremdes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 11.
Only time can ever tell how Pacificador will be treated or remembered by the people. For now however, despite his double acquittal, Pacificador is seen as a villain by the thousands who had placed their beloved Beloy in the sacred corners of their hearts.
Who indeed is Arturo Pacificador?
In the February 24, 1986 issue of Time Magazine that reported the murder of Javier, it attributed the rash of killings in the country to what is called as “gangland violence” and likened Pacificador to a “warlord”
It says: “Opposition leaders and many residents immediately claimed they knew who was behind the killing: Arturo Pacificador, a Marcos crony who is assistant majority floor leader in the National Assembly. Pacificador has operated like a warlord in Antique, wielding political patronage with his connections in the ruling party and the power he has amassed under Marcos.
Opponents say he has ensured his power through alliances with the legitimate armed forces and ties to less reputable mercenaries known locally as goons.”
Time magazine also described Pacificador, then 55 years old as “an attorney who reportedly won Marcos’ loyalty by purging references to bought votes from the record of the 1971 Constitutional Convention.”
Even the Supreme Court of the Philippines in its decision of September 22, 1986 which posthumously granted the petition of Javier to nullify the proclamation of Pacificador as the duly elected representative of Antique in the 1984 Batansang Pambansa elections alluded to his “pomp of power” and to what the Time Magazine described as gangland violence.
Setting the tone for its decision, the Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz wrote:
“The petitioner (Javier) and the private respondent (Pacificador) were candidates in Antique for the Batasang Pambansa in the May 1984 elections. The former appeared to enjoy more popular support but the latter had the advantage of being the nominee of the KBL with all its prerequisites of power. On May 13, 1984, the eve of the elections, the bitter contest between the two came to a head when several followers of the petitioner were ambushed and killed, allegedly by the latter’s men. Seven suspects including respondent Pacificador, are now facing trial for these murders.
The incident naturally heightened tension in the province and sharpened the climate of fear among the electorate. Conceivably, it intimidated voters against supporting the opposition candidate of the ruling party……It was in this atmosphere that the voting was held and the post election developments were to run true to form.”
“Antique in 1984 hewed to the line and equaled if it did not surpass the viciousness of elections in the other provinces dominated by the KBL. Terrorism was a special feature, as demonstrated by the killings previously mentioned, which victimized no less than one of the main protagonists and implicated his rival as principal perpetrator. Opposition leaders were in constant peril of their lives even as their supporters were gripped with fear of violence at the hands of the party in power.”
Even as the Supreme Court decision cited various legal basis for nullifying Pacificador’s election and rendering the acts of the Commission on Elections as illegal, it did not fail to mention what it perceived as Pacificador’s extension of power at the Comelec. “Another matter deserving the highest consideration of this court but accorded cavalier attention by the respondent Commission on Elections is due process of law, that ancient guarantee of justice and fair play which is the hallmark of a free society.
Commissioner Opinion ignored it. Asked to inhibit himself on the ground that he was formerly a law partner of the private respondent, he obstinately insisted on participating in the case, denying he was biased.”
“Given the general attitude of the Commission on Elections towards the party in power at that time and the particular relationship between Commissioner Opinion and Pacificador, one could not at least be apprehensive, if not certain, that the decision of the body would be adverse to the petitioner, as in fact it was. Commissioner Opinion’s refusal to inhibit himself and his objection to the transfer of the case to another division can not be justified by any criterion of propriety….”
Hero’s grandson
Pacificador thou had not for once denied association with the Marcoses. In fact, in a visit to him by this writer at his detention house in 2004, on display at his receiving room are a number of memorabilia with the Marcoses.
Still to others, Pacificador could never be a villain having served the Province of Antique as its representative to the 1972 Constitutional Conevntion and to the Batasang Pambansa.
In fact, other members of the Pacificador family had occupied various government posts in Antique like his brother Julian who became mayor of Hamtic and the capital town of San Jose and there after as Governor of the Province.
He was however defeated by Evelio Javier in the 1971 gubernatorial race when he sought another term.
Pacificador is also a direct descendant of Antique’s acclaimed revolutionary hero, General Leandro Fullon. In abiographical sketch written by Aida Ricarze for the book “Maaram,” it noted that Fullon had two children, Pacita and Arturo. Arturo died an infant while Pacita got to marry Roberto Pacificador, Jr from Pototan, Iloilo. The couple had 8 children, the sixth in the brood is Arturo Pacificador.
On Justice and Freedom
Right from the start, Pacificador had hoped for an acquittal. In an interview with him in February 2004 when the long drawn hearing was finally submitted for resolution, Pacificador said then, if he gets an acquittal he will go around the province and dictate the remaining years of his life to public service, if he won’t get it, Pacificador says he is ready for and not afraid of anything. “I will face it. I know eventually, if I do not get justice here, I will get it somewhere else.” Nine years of incarceration, Pacificador claims that the experience had not changed his concept of freedom.
“I don’t believe that my freedom is curtailed except the freedom to go out. At my age, I don’t really need to go out.” he said.
And rightly so, unless one is considered a hardened criminal and placed in a cell, the majority of the detainees at the Antique Rehabilitation Center live in cottages and in some cases with their families. Pacificador shared cottage with three others two of whom are already serving time.
The absence of high protective walls and the rustic ambience of the 20 hectare rehabilitation center nestle along Binirayan hills gives the inmates an air of freedom. They plant, they cook, they play, sing videoke, have their own fiesta celebration and even build their own cottages.
The only kind in the country managed by the local government, the center was established in 1972 by then Governor Javier hardly knowing that some years later, it would be home to be very people accused of his own murder.
Asked if they were treated fairly in relation to how the trial proceeded, Pacificador had this recap:
“The delay in trial is not fair enough, we were expecting a speedy trial. We hold the longest TRO in the world, nine years. Under the law, upon your arrest and within 30 days, you will be arraigned. After the arraignment trial will start but will not exceed 180 days, this is the provision of the speedy trial act. When I surrendered in 1995, I was arraigned only in 1999, four years after. Why? because the Supreme Court ordered the lower court not to hear the case here – the longest TRO.”
Pacificador on Javier
Pacificador agrees to the accolade given to Javier, but for a different reason. Asked how he feels about Javier being revered as a hero, Pacificador says he is happy about it because it vindicates Marcos. “I am glad that he is declared a hero because that will vindicate President Marcos. Evelio was a Marcos man, as a matter of fact, in 1984, he was the handpicked candidate of Marcos as member of Parliament representing the province of Antique,” Pacificador said. Pacificador took note of an alleged handwritten note from Marcos addressed to the local officials of the province and passed around that time which said that his candidate to the Batasan was Javier. “As his handpicked is now a hero, then Marcos is vindicated,” he said. But Pacificador also gave a different view of the man who he said used to call him “tatay.”
“During his school days, Mr. Javier was a companion of my daughter, they were the so called activists and they used to have a meeting in my house, they sleep in my house. As a matter of fact, he used to call me “tatay.” The next thing I knew, we were running against each other for the 1971 Constitutional Convention representative for the province of Antique, luckily I won that elections. After that he ran for Governor of the Province against my brother Julian who was then the incumbent. He won.”
Pacificador debunks observations that the province’s slow development having been in the bottom 20 for long was due to the feuding of political families particularly the Pacificadors and Javiers.
“Not really he said, I was congressman when Javier was Governor but we worked together for the good of the province.”
“We were fighting on principle, we were howling at each other during radio programs but when it comes to working together for public service we never had any serious quarrel, I support him, he supports me,” he said.
Asked what sets him and Javier apart, Pacificador said it was more ideological. “He is quite a leftist, I am not. I am on the right not even in between. I am with the right because I support the principles of free enterprise, the principles of a democratic government, the principle that sovereignty resides in the people. These are the principles that the rightist stand for compared to the leftist which is – that the source of power is from the barrel of the gun and that the instruments of production belong to the state, things like that.”
“I believe that in social justice all you have to do is to give everybody equal chance. I do not even believe in Magsaysay’s concept that those who have less in life should have more in law. Just give everybody a level playing field.” he said.
Simple wish
To be the main respondent in a celebrated case that even brought out one of the country’s modern day hero, Pacificador indeed had so much to wish for. As history writes itself, the simplest of these wishes is that his province mates remember him from another vein that counts 30 years of his life as a public servant.
Says he: “I just want to be remembered as the man who have dedicated himself to the service of the people of Antique. What more would I aspire as a legacy to my people here than the sincere and honest service I have rendered them during my term in public service.”
LIST OF ACCUSED IN THE JAVIER MURDER CASE
Special Report 2, Evelio Javier
WV Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, May 2005
