Canada inflicts double injustice on Filipino people
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:18:00 07/05/2008
I am so distraught with the unkind treatment of Juana Tejada by Canada (Ceres Doyo’s column, “Dying Filipino caregiver in Canada is being kicked out,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6/19/08), a country that is supposed to be the new land of hope and opportunity for hundreds of thousands of people from countries like the Philippines.
It is all the more shocking to know that because of a strange legal system and state policy, the Canadian government, through its Supreme Court, has confirmed the grant of political asylum to Rodolfo Pacificador, the alleged mastermind of the brutal assassination in 1986 of Antique’s popular hero and anti-Marcos activist, Evelio Javier. The reason given by the abysmally misinformed justices of the Canadian court is that Pacificador “faces persecution and torture should he be sent back to the Philippines.”
Through the Tejada and Pacificador cases, Canada is inflicting on the Filipino people a double injustice.
Yes, it is perfectly right and urgent that we come up with a “million-signature” petition to keep Tejada in Canada, whose citizens she has served so well, so that she could get the medical care she rightly deserves. But I wish we can also sign as strong a petition for Canada to give us back a Marcos blackguard so that justice will be fully served, and Javier’s soul will finally be given rest.
BELLAFLOR CONVIDA, Puerto Princesa, Palawan
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