IN THE KNOW: Arturo Pacificador

In 1999, describing what life was like in a police camp, Arturo Pacificador told Sunday Inquirer Magazine: “Hell. If you have no liberty, no freedom at all, if you’re deprived of your means of livelihood, you lose your self-respect because you live off charity.”

Pacificador was regarded one of the most powerful men in the Visayas during martial law but during the interview he was detained in Bugante Point, San Jose, Antique, for the 1986 murder of former Antique governor Evelio Javier.

Javier was shot on Feb. 11, 1986 by heavily armed men at the public plaza of the capital town of San Jose during the canvassing of votes of the snap presidential elections between Marcos and Corazon Aquino.

Pacificador, who was a political rival of Javier, then served as majority floor leader of the Batasang Pambansa and deputy minister for public works.

Five months before the May 2013 elections, Pacificador had a stroke. He found it hard to walk and would reach out to voters through radio interviews.

I would have reconsidered my plans if the stroke happened before I filed my candidacy. But I don’t want to back out because never in my political life have I withdrawn from a battle,” he said. Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives