Supreme Court of Canada ruling expected to help several high profile international fugitives in B.C.

By Asian Pacific News Service

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Rodolfo Pacificador, an accused Filipino political assassin, can stay in Canada because he won't get a fair trial in his homeland.

The landmark decision is expected to trigger fresh legal challenges by several high profile international fugitives who have taken refuge in British Columbia.

"It looks like if these guys can show that they are political targets or can prove to our judges that the justice system in their homeland is corrupt, they will get a pass to stay in Canada," said a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer.

"It enhances our international reputation as a safe haven for the world's most wanted," he said.

Rodolfo Pacificador

Among those expected to take advantage of the recent ruling are China's most wanted man, Lai Changxing who lives in Burnaby, a Mexican politician accused of embezzlement who lives in Coquitlam and Thailand's fugitive banker Rakesh Saxena who lives in a luxurious False Creek condo under a unique court-arranged home-prison routine.

The Supreme Court of Canada decision this month effectively ended a 14-year-old court battle by Manila to extradite Rodolfo Pacificador who is jointly charged with his father and several others for killing opponents of former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The murders triggered the people power revolution in the Philippines, which culminated in Marcos fleeing the country and dying in exile in Hawaii.

Pacificador came to Canada in 1987 after the rebellion in the Philippines. In 1991, he was taken into custody on request by the Philippine government and ordered deported in 1992.

He started a prolonged fight through the courts and spent seven years in detention at one point he was the longest-serving prisoner in Toronto's Don Jail before being released on bail in 1998.

Last summer, three justices of the Ontario Court of Appeals expressed fears that sending Pacificador back to the Philippines would violate his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"All evidence points to the likelihood that the extraditee would be tortured and jailed indefinitely without trial," wrote the judges in a decision that outraged Manila.

The Canadian Justice Department appealed the Ontario judgement to the Supreme Court, which earlier this month decided Pacificador can stay.

The Supreme Court denied the appeal that found extraditing Pacificador would be 'simply unacceptable.'

As usual, the Supreme Court gave no reasons for rejecting the appeal.

The judgements were handed down despite direct assurances from the Philippine president and the country's justice ministry that the accused will get a fair and speedy trial.

Pacificador's lawyer, Phil Campbell, said his client will likely be allowed to stay in Canada.

"He's hopeful, I'm hopeful," Campbell said, adding he doesn't think the Immigration Department will fly in the face of the court rulings.

"They are constrained by the legal findings that have been made."

Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Lauro Baja said in Manila that Francisco Benedicto, the Philippine ambassador in Ottawa would seek ways to appeal the decision directly to the Canadian government.

Pacificador and his father, Arturo, a former Filipino assemblyman, are accused of masterminding the assassination of their political rival Governor Evelio Javier of the province of Antique in February 1986.

The duo, who were aligned to deposed Filipino strongman Ferdinand Marcos are also accused in the Sibalom massacre case, where seven supporters of the Pacificador's political rivals were ambushed and killed.

Pacificador was charged with murder and four counts of attempted murder before he fled to Canada and claimed status as a convention refugee in October of 1987. Six of Pacificador's henchmen have already been convicted for the massacre.

The elder Pacificador remains in jail awaiting trial.

In a series of court hearings in the Philippines the Pacificadors have been implicated in the two political assassination cases.

The first was in connection with the murder of Javier and the wounding of several others on Feb. 11, 1986. The Pacificadors, were close allies of then President Marcos and the father was a former deputy minister for public works and highways.

The target, Javier was a staunch anti-Marcos politician in Antique at that time.

In the incident, a gang of gunmen shot and pursued Javier from the grounds of the capitol building of Antique to the toilet of a house, some 250 meters away, where he was finished off.

In the other incident, which occurred two years earlier, the Pacificadors are alleged to be behind the ambush of seven of their political opponents. In that incident which occurred on May 13, 1984, the courts were told that gunmen in a Toyota truck belonging to the Pacificadors ambushed a group of political campaigners near a bridge outside the town of San Jose and opened fire.

The gunmen rained fire from Armalite rifles and later shot one of their victims a short distance away as he was crawling for help.

Pacificador has denied all the charges in the Philippines.

The Canadian courts, in allowing him to stay, found no evidence to dispute Pacificador's allegations of political manipulation and ruled that extraditing him would expose him to a legal system whose conduct 'shocks the conscience'.

Pacificador currently lives in Toronto.