Pacificador kin points gun at cop

ILOILO CITY — A nephew of former Assemblyman Arturo Pacificador, facing trial for allegedly masterminding the 1986 murder of former Antique governor Evelio Javier, was arrested Friday night after threatening a city police officer with a gun.

The suspect, Julius Ronald Pacifi—cador, 24-year-old son of Mayor Julius Pacificador of Hamtic, Antique, pos—ted P29,000 bail the following day on charges of grave threats and violation of Republic Act 8294 for alleged illegal possession of a firearm.

The young Pacificador presented papers for his 9-mm. Ruger pistol, but police said they were still verifying their authenticity.

Police said he faces another complaint for grave threats filed by a traffic aide whom he also allegedly threatened with a gun last Aug. 16.

Senior Inspector Alexis Relado, assigned with the intelligence and drug enforcement unit of the city police, said he was on surveillance operation in one of the city’s barangays, on board his Nissan Vanette, when Pacificador, who was driving a Nissan Frontier, cut his path.

Relado said he alighted from his vehicle and approached the Nissan Frontier, but saw Pacificador, his window half-open, pointing a gun at him.

"Ma-ano ka? Karon tiruhon taka (What is it? I will shoot you)," the police officer quoted Pacificador as saying.

Relado said Pacificador apparently did not notice the police tag on his jacket, thus prompting him to identify himself as a policeman. At this instance, Pacificador, he said, "stepped on the gas and escaped."

Relado said he fired a warning shot but Pacificador just sped away. He gave chase and managed to shoot one of the tires of the Nissan Frontier, which he said bore no license plates.

The Nissan Frontier was disabled some five kilometers away from where the chase started, and near a police detachment in the city’s Jaro district.

Pacificador was in the company of a woman and a child during the incident.