Vol. 1 No.1 - Special Report 2

We are back!

Evelio Javier: The Marking of a Hero

Jo Martinez-Clemente

“Here in the rotunda,

Trampled by all kinds of feet

Heeled, shoed, slippered or soled

Level all walks in countless

Declarations, speeches,

propaganda, promises.

We recount all cracks on the cement,

And calculate what it’s worth

To smoothen the pavement.

Because here, one man’s boots

Pounded our hearts as he fled

From assassins we can now name

But never dare spell out.

On the eleventh hour of reckoning

The ballots of freedom

The eleventh of February 1986

We heard the volley of gunfire that

made this park a tomb.

Here is where we bury all hate.

Here we unearth our greatness.” 

Excerpts from EBJ Freedom Park By Alex delos Santos

“Evelio Javier, director of Corazon Aquino’s campaign in the remote province of Antique, was sitting on the lawn in front of the capital building, taking a break from a debate over contested votes in his region, when a white vehicle pulled into the driveway. Without warning, a man in a black knit skit mask leaped out and started shooting. Javier jumped up and ran. Zigzagging across the building’s broad concrete plaza, he tried to escape the relentless barrage of bullets. At least one hit its mark. Javier stumbled and fell into a small fishpond. Somehow, though, the fleeing man struggled to his feet and staggered across the street. By this time, other gunmen had begun to close in. Two approached from the left. Another, brandishing a .45 pistol, appeared in front of a warehouse. Javier ducked into an alley and tried to hide behind an outhouse door. But the masked killer found his prey and finished him off with a burst of gunfire.”

This report of the Time Magazine in its February 24, 1986 issue is repeated many times over in various forms the last 19 years. Not only was his story narrated before the Courts in testimonies of eyewitness to his tragic end but also in songs and poems of those who never knew nor met Evelio Javier but whose martyrdom inspired them.

Like Ninoy Aquino, Evelio Javier came to us at a time when we needed an icon to keep the patriotic fire burning, fortify our ranks and make firmer our resolve to end years of dictatorship in the country. And we did.

Countless men and women in various shades and hues of the political spectrum have died in the struggle against the Marcos Dictatorship. No matter how one divides the country’s political epoch or color each segment, red, yellow or white, the fact remains that it is the big strides taken by Ninoy and Evelio that created the icons thereby giving names and faces to the much needed heroes of our time.

Sadly though, the memory of Evelio Javier would fade fast with time, unless sustained.

Let us take cue from students at the University of the Philippines in Iloilo City. I asked a group most of them in their third year why they don’t come to class on February 11 and what makes it a holiday, they don’t know. I asked if they know who Evelio Javier was. They also didn’t know except for one who by chance was from Antique.

Antique Governor Salvacion Zaldivar – Perez is correct in saying that “Javier belongs to everybody.” It is probably in this context that Republic Act 7601, was passed. The law declared February 11 as an official non-working holiday in all of Panay to give time to people in the region to commemorate the Martyrdom of Evelio Javier.

Javier is revered and dearly remembered in his own home province. But as one of Panay’s modern day hero, how dwells the man in the consciousness of the rest of the region?

The Man

Evelio Javier was elected Governor of Antique in 1972 and at 29 was the youngest governor in the Philippines then. He won over incumbent Governor Julian Pacificador and made his mark by garnering one of the biggest majorities in the history of Antique’s gubernatorial contest.

At the end of his term, Javier went to the United States to study at the Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He obtained his Masters in Public Administration. His study focused on International Development, Public Management and Political Analysis. As a student, Javier has shown scholastic excellence and leadership. He graduated First Honors from Antique’s San Jose Elementary School in 1955. He then went to the Ateneo de Manila for his High School and graduated in 1959. He completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Government in 1963, also at the Ateneo where he was a scholar of the Asian Social Institute. From here, he moved to Ateneo’s law school. During his last year, he was simultaneously Student Council President and editor in chief of the Palladium. Earlier during his undergraduate years, he was news editor and later associate editor of the Gidion, the official publication of Ateneo. He completed his Bachelor of Laws in 1968 and passed the bar the same year. Still, Evelio Javier extended time in Ateneo to be part of its teaching force. He was with both the College and Law faculty from 1968 to 1971.

A true blooded Antiqueno, Evelio Javier was born on October 31, 1942 in Lanag, Hamtic. He is eldest in a brood of four. His father Everado is a lawyer from Hamtic while mother Feliza is a school teacher from Culasi. He also married an Antiquena, Precious Bello Lotilla from Sibalom town with whom he had two sons, Francis Gideon Everado and David Ignatius.

In 1984 he returned to Antique and ran for Assemblyman against incumbent Arturo Pacificador. He lost but filed before the Supreme Court a petition to nullify the proclamation of Pacificador as winner of the election. Three years after, the Supreme Court would posthumously rule in his favor.

Tributes and accolade

The decision of the highest court however was not bereft of the country’s sentiments at the time. Taking note of the incidents in between including the assassination of Javier which according to many brought the case to a close, Justice Isagani Cruz wrote with fervent passion:

“It is so easy now, as has been suggested not without reason, to send the records of this case to the archives and say the case is finished and the book is closed.

But not yet.

Let us first say these meager words in tribute to a fallen hero who was struck down in the vigor of his youth because he dared to speak against tyranny. Where many kept a meekly silence for fear of retaliation, and still others feigned and fawned in hopes of safety and even reward, he chose to fight. He was not afraid. Money did not tempt him. Threats did not daunt him. Power did not awe him. His was a singular and all-exacting obsession: the return of freedom to his country. And though he fought not in the barricades of war amid the sound and smoke of shot and shell, he was a soldier nonetheless, fighting valiantly for the liberties of his people against the enemies of his race, unfortunately of his race too, who would impose upon the land a perpetual night of dark enslavement. He did not see the breaking of the dawn, sad to say, but in a very real sense Evelio B. Javier made that dawn draw nearer because he was, like Saul and Jonathan, “swifter than eagles and stronger than lions.”

In the same decision. Justice Cruz took note of a letter the Court received earlier from an 82 year old woman who introduced herself as the sister of the late Justice Calixto Zaldival. But she also introduced herself as “the mother of Rhium Z. Sanchez, the grandmother of Plaridael Sanchez and Aldrich Sanchez, the aunt of Mamerta Zaldivar. I lost all four of them in the election eve ambush in Antique last year.” With such introduction, along came her plea: “Before I die, I would like to see justice to my son and grandsons.’ May I also add that the people of Antique have not stopped praying that the true winner of the last elections will be decided upon by the Supreme Court soon.”

From here, Justice Cruz wrote: “That was a year ago, and since then a new government has taken over in the wake of the February revolution. The despot has escaped, and with him, let us pray, all the oppressions and repressions of the past have also been banished forever. A new spirit is now upon our land. A new vision lines the horizon. Now we can look forward with new hope that under the Constitution of the future every Filipino shall be truly sovereign in his own country, able to express his will through the pristine ballot with only his conscience as his counsel.

This is not an impossible dream. Indeed, it is an approachable goal. It can and will be won if we are able at last, after our long ordeal, to say never again to tyranny. If we can do this with courage and conviction, then and only then, and not until then, can we truly say that the case is finished and the book is closed.” 

The case

The latest contribution to the dearth of literature written about Evelio Javier, is a 156 page decision of Antique’s Regional Trial Court Branch 12 that took 18 years to complete. And this is the one that many hoped would enshrine the true measure of justice in this country. But, has it? 

It is worth noting too that 10 of the 18 years of the case were spent in limbo when the Supreme Court on Sept. 22, 1989 issued a restraining order enjoining Hon Bonofacio Sanz Maceda, then presiding judge from further acting on the cases. This restraining order was lifted on June 19, 1999 when a motion from the solicitor general sought for the continuation of the hearings.

To the Javier family, even as most of the accused were found guilty of the crime, the acquittal of Pacificador is still in wanting of justice for their beloved Beloy. Be that as it may, judgement had finally been made and once more, only time and history canever tell if indeed it was served well.

LIST OF ACCUSED IN THE JAVIER MURDER CASE

Special Report 1, Arturo Pacificador

WV Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, May 2005