Before shooting, Pope left notes on ‘unfinished business’

THE Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) received yesterday a request and some documents from Canadian national John Pope.

The handwritten cover letter is dated Jan. 22, 2013, the same day Pope allegedly shot a lawyer and a doctor who had filed cases against him for grave threats and malicious mischief.

Pope wrote that the letter was about "unfinished business."

In it, he requested that the CCPC ask for corrections in some local newspaper stories about his arrest last May 2011, for allegedly carrying an unlicensed handgun outside the clinic that Drs. Rene and Elaine Rafols shared in Capitol Site.

Dr. Rene Rafols is one of two men that Pope shot and killed last Tuesday morning inside the Cebu City courtroom where the case against Pope was scheduled for hearing.

“You owe me and the public an explanation about whether or not you stand by your original story and why you do, if you do stand by it,” Pope wrote.

Pope, in a separate memo dated Nov. 18, 2012, said a case against him for possession of an unlicensed firearm was based on a perjured affidavit and an illegal search and seizure, “with the facts of the case covered up by the highest levels of the Cebu City
police.”

The string of criminal cases against him—which included trespass to dwelling, malicious mischief and alleged violations of a law against child abuse and exploitation—later became part of the basis for the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) order to deport Pope.

The BI, in the order dated Oct. 11, 2012, said that the retiree was an “overstaying and undesirable” alien.

Also in the packet that Pope sent the CCPC are documents about his legal battles, which he blamed for the denial of his application to become the legal guardian of a Filipina teenager.

A copy of his manuscript, “Justice Denied”, was also enclosed.