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Created on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 13:31
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Published on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 13:31
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Evelio Bellaflor Javier was a civil servant and an oppositionist during the authoritarian regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. He was born on October 14, 1942 in Barangay Lanag (now Barangay Evelio Javier), Hamtic, Antique. His parents are Everardo Autajay Javier and Feliza Bellaflor. He finished his elementary school at San Jose Elementary School (now Delegate Angel Salazar Jr. Memorial School) in San Jose, Antique. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Government and his Bachelor of Laws in Ateneo Law School. He has passed the bar examination and is a member of the law school’s Fraternal Order of Utopia. He married Preciousa Bello Lotilla of Sibalom, Antique; and they had two sons, Francis Gideon Everardo and David.
Evelio was a marked man since 1971 when he chose to fight the goons, the guns, and the gold. His own “goons” were the school children, his guns were his guts, and his gold was his dream – a dream that someday freedom would in his province. Evelio B. Javier ran for governor of Antique and won in 1971 making him, at the age of 28, the Philippines' youngest governor during that decade. The years of his tenure as governor from 1971 to 1980 turned him into a folk hero.
Evelio Javier’s political life was built upon a dream: “Let freedom ring.” With faith and vigor, he pursued that dream in Antique, in every mountainside and every hamlet. He was no ordinary governor. Evelio took phone calls from his people even at dawn. His organization was his people and his bailiwick was the faith the people induced upon him. He moved freely among the people who took him as though he was their own son.
As the campaign manager of the opposition in Antique, Evelio was keenly aware of the dangers that surround him but he did not chose the safe side. Many thought he was foolish for moving recklessly among his enemies. He went to the farthest mountainside and to every hamlet in the province with no bodyguards, believing he could always manage to outstep the threats against him.
In 1980, Evelio Javier’s political career was so promising that Marcos’ ruling party wanted him to switch sides and join the Marcos roster in the upcoming election. He chose not to run for re-election and went to the United States to study at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government under a grant. He asked Enrique A. Zaldivar to run for election instead.
In 1983, Ninoy’s death angered Evelio. The news of Ninoy’s death prompted many to reach out to Evelio. He received numerous telephone calls from all over the United States. The Filipino people in the United States wanted to talk to Evelio. Evelio dropped everything including his job in brokerage insurance and returned to the Philippines in December 1983. He was sure of what he wanted – to wage a campaign for the Batasan or the National Assembly against his longtime rival, Arturo Pacificador. He could have stayed in the United States. Instead, he chose to return home to help rejuvenate the opposition in his province. Evelio had many political arguments and was berated for running for the Batasan – for which he answered: “This is my life. I have to do this. What other way is there to save our country, our people, without bloodshed?”
In the evening of the elections of 1984, the Sibalom Bridge Massacre, became the crowning glory of the reign of terror in Antique. Seven of Evelio’s supporters were killed. The tyrants of Antique did their worst because of their awareness of their inevitable defeat at the polls. The incumbent assemblyman was investigated but never charge with that crime. The COMELEC results showed that Evelio lost, but NAMFREL countered that by their count that Evelio was the runaway winner.
Early in the morning of February 11, 1986, while Evelio Javier was talking to his friends under a tree across the street of the steps of the New Capitol building in the capital town of Antique – three or four armed and masked gunmen riding in two Nissan Jeeps opened fire at the group, which dispersed in all directions.
Evelio was the obvious target of the attack. He fled, wounded, zigzagging across the park away from the capitol building. He tried to jump across a two-meter fish pond, but stumbled and fell. Spectators in the nearby building were terrified as they bear witness into the chilling chase, yelling supportively to Evelio. He managed to get himself out of the shallow pond and then continued staggering across the street. Evelio tried to seek refuge at the stores across the park but merchant rushed to lock-up their shops. Finding the merchant doors already locked, Evelio ran into an alley and sought refuge behind the galvanized-steel-and-wood door of a backyard latrine. His pursuers followed his trail of blood and caught up to him bursting automatic fires through the four-inch thick door of the stall. The stall door was riddled with bullet holes and fifty shells were later recovered from the scene.
Government workers talked about the horror they had witnessed right there in the main plaza. Pacificador was on everyone’s lips. Opposition leaders and many residents immediately claimed they knew who was behind the killing: Arturo Pacificador, a Marcos crony who is assistant majority floor leader in the National Assembly. Pacificador has operated like a warlord in Antique, wielding political patronage with his connections in the ruling party and the power he has amassed under Marcos. Opponents say he has ensured his power through alliances with the legitimate armed forces and ties to less reputable mercenaries known locally as goons. "We cannot distinguish between goons and the military here," said one provincial official afraid to have his name used. "Pacificador controls them all." A Marcos defeat was seen as a threat to such dominance.
The day following the murder, the Aquino campaign released an interview that Javier had taped before his death. "Every time I move around Antique, I have to play cat and mouse with the goons of Pacificador," said the voice of the dead man. "I have to be elusive." Several arrests were made but Pacificador was never touched. Pacificador denied that he played any role in the killing of the man who challenged his supreme rule over the province. He insisted that the murder had been committed by Communist insurgents or by Javier's political enemies.
RAM officer Robles took special interest with Evelio’s murder. Robles had his hands on confidential information that the president had asked Pacificador to give him a 100,000 vote margin of victory in Antique. Unfortunately for Pacificador, Evelio and his followers were determined to protect the ballots. Pacificador was forced to take greater measures to comply with Marcos’ order. Robles stated that after Evelio was killed, Pacificador’s men stuffed the ballots… and Marcos was declared the winner in Antique.
Javier was one of many politicians murdered during the period of martial law in the Philippines. His funeral surpassed that of Benigno Aquino, Jr., assassinated three years earlier in 1983. Evelio's body went in procession throughout the main streets of Manila, passing through Ateneo de Manila University where a funeral mass for him made, attended by thousands of friends and colleagues.
It was after a Requiem Mass for Evelio in the campus of the Ateneo de Manila – a mass for which Cory Aquino was present – wherein many people heard for the first time the statement of the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines saying that the recently ended elections were marked with unprecedented fraud and violence.
The funeral turned into a protest demonstration as cause-oriented groups waved their flags during the funeral march through the major streets of Manila in mourning for Evelio. His death was a bright flare that lit up the darkness surrounding the electoral fraud and deceit. After the initial horror at the manner of his death, mourning for Evelio raised courage and determination among Cory Aquino’s supporters. It is said that the assassination of Evelio B. Javier on February 11, 1986 fueled the fire to start the People Power/Philippine EDSA Revolution.
Millions of mourning people followed his funeral procession to the cemetery wearing yellow shirts and tying yellow bands to their wrists on the day of his funeral and burial to his final resting place at his hometown of San Jose de Buenavista, Antique. They played his favorite song, "The Impossible Dream," during the procession to the cemetery. Thousands of Antikenyos showed their anger and sorrow by crying "Justice for Evelio! We love you!".
During the Cory Aquino for president campaign, Evelio received numerous death threats from Arturo Pacificador, the provincial warlord that derived his power from Marcos. A few days before his death, Evelio told a friend: “We are sitting ducks here.” When asked why he chose to be a sitting duck, he replied: “For Cory and for the country.”
Bibliography
Burton, Sandra. Impossible dream: the Marcoses, the Aquinos and the uninished revolution. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1989.
"Gangland Politics." Time Magazine 24 February 1986.
Tatad, Francisco S. People Power. Manila: The James B. Reuter, S.J., Foundation, 1986.
