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CERTIFICATION

I, Thomas C. Shrake, certify that:

1.       I have reviewed this
annual report on Form 20-F of Pacific Rim Mining Corp.;

2.       Based on my knowledge,
this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to
state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the
circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect
to the period covered by this report;

3.       Based on my knowledge,
the financial statements, and other financial information included in this
annual report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition,
results of operations and cash flows of the company as of, and for, the periods
presented in this report;

4.       The companys other
certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining
disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e)
and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in
Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the company and have:

(a)           Designed such
disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and
procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that material
information relating to the issuer, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is
made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period
in which this report is being prepared;

(b)           Designed such
internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over
financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable
assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation
of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles;

(c)           Evaluated the
effectiveness of the issuers disclosure controls and procedures and presented
in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure
controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this report
based on such evaluation; and

(d)           Disclosed in
this report any change in the issuers internal control over financial reporting
that occurred during the period covered by the annual report that has materially
affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the issuers internal
control over financial reporting; and

5.       The companys other
certifying officer(s) and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation
of internal control over financial reporting, to the issuers auditors and the
audit committee of the issuers board of directors (or persons performing the
equivalent functions):

(a)           All significant
deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of internal
control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect
the issuers ability to record, process, summarize and report financial
information; and

(b)           Any fraud,
whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who have a
significant role in the issuers internal control over financial reporting.

|Date: July 24, 2009 | By: |                        
|------------------- | --- | -----------------------
|                    |     | Thomas C. Shrake     
|                    |     | Thomas C. Shrake       
|                    |     | Chief Executive Officer

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