ANTIQUE REMEMBERS EVELIO, THEIR DON QUIXOTE

Posted by APTO on Feb 14, 2014

On the 28th year of his death, relatives, friends and allies still long for him. This was the mutual feeling during the commemoration of Evelio B. Javier’s death anniversary last February 11, 2014. The early morning “pamukaw” by the caravan of motor bikers led by the blaring sound system playing Javier’s campaign song, The Impossible Dream sent the elder ones, women especially, to reminisce how it was when Evelio was still alive. And the remembrance sent tears of longing for the idol of the masses.

 

There was a solemn mass held at the new capitol lobby attended by the Javier family, the provincial government employees as well as the personnel and staff of national agencies in the province. It must be recalled that Javier served as Antique’s governor in 1971 until his term ends in 1980.

 

After the mass, everyone went on a visit to the cemetery where the remains of Javier and his wife Precious who died in 2012 were buried. A simple program commemorating the life and heroism of Evelio was held at his statue at the EBJ Freedom Park, the very place where he was gunned down in broad daylight that fateful day of February 11, 1986. No less than Evelio’s brother and the present governor of the province of Antique, Exequiel B. Javier gave the message to the more than a thousand attendees. The message that still evoke sadness and could even trigger a demand for justice for the death of Antique’s Don Quixote, even after 28 years or even beyond.

 

The Mensa Domini Sisters led the Holy Rosary at 6:00 p.m. at the very spots where Evelio was shot. Joining the sisters were Gov. Javier and elder sister Nona, government heads of offices, employees, Mayor Rony Molina and Vice Mayor Elmer Untaran of San Jose de Buenavista and residents of nearby barangays in the capital town. After which an OKM, or original Kiniray-a Music Contest was held in front of the hero’s statue at the EBJ Freedom Park. This was participated in by high school students from nearby schools. The contest was spearheaded by the Antique Provincial Tourism Office led by its officer in charge Ronald V. Gayatin and personnel. The Middle Voice Society Inc. also assisted in the program.

 

It is common knowledge that Evelio had a soft heart for the young, for the children. And like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, children were drawn towards him in their usual playful manners. Thus the OKM contest catered to the younger Antiquenos.

 

Javier’s political life….

 

Running for the governorship of Antique and winning by a landslide at the young age of 28, the youngest governor then, Evelio had nothing but faith and dreams for the Antiqueno. He believed he could fight the guns, gold and goons that were rampant in the province then. As former governor Enrique A. Zaldivar said in his speech during the necrological services for Evelio on February 20, 1986 at the new capitol, “…he fought the goons, the guns and the gold. His goons were the school children, his guns were his guts and his gold was his dream – dream that someday and somehow freedom would ring for good in Antique…”

 

He was not a 9 to 5 o’clock governor. Constituents could make house calls on him even during the wee hours of dawn. He had no organization but his people and his bailiwick was the faith, and the dreams he induced in them. He mingled with his people and took them into his heart as thought these were his children. He moved freely and recklessly, though dangerous, but Evelio didn’t care less. Without a bodyguard to protect him, he went to the farthest mountain of Antique and to the remotest hamlet, talking and mingling with his people.

 

In 1981, although confident of another victory, Evelio opted not to run and instead endorsed Enrique Ang Zaldivar who won and became governor that year. Evelio went to pursue a scholarship grant to study at JF Kennedy school of Government at Harvard University, in the United States and came back in 1984 and run for the Batasang Pambansa congressional seat against Arturo Pacificador. On the eve of that election, the Pangpang Bridge massacre happened, it was the “crowning glory of the reign of terror in Antique”. Seven of Javier’s supporters died on that infamous incident. The perpetrators run away unscathed, Pacificador was even declared winner in the polls, but by NAMFREL’s count, Evelio was the true winner. Evelio’s protest action was unresolved and undecided, but with or without the Supreme’s court decision, the people of Antique regarded him as the duly elected Member of the Parliament.

 

Gov. Exequiel B. Javier recalled that Evelio himself shared with him his thoughts on Antique’s fate and the circumstances that surround the province. Evelio would say, recalled his brother, that if this continues to be the trend, “mayad siguro ula-an ta ka dugo.”

 

“I never thought that my brother would shed his own blood, right on this very spot where we stand now, “ Governor Javier said, teary-eyed, during this year’s commemoration of Evelio’s martyrdom.

 

And so we now enjoy the freedom he fought for, not only here in Antique but Evelio’s death triggered the famous EDSA Revolution, which sent then President Ferdinand Marcos to “fly” to Hawaii.

 

Does his dream ended on his death? It should not diminish. Evelio’s dream should be ours as well. One’s dream should not perish with the death of the dreamer. Like the torch of Olympus in ancient Greece, it shall go to willing hands, because in the words of Ninoy Aquino “courage, like cowardice, contaminates”.

 

Premonition of death – it is said that every man has his own premonition of his own death. A few days before the incident, Javier seemed to know that he was going to die. He told a priest : “I am brave, Father, but I am also afraid die. But when the time comes, I wish my people would see me.”

 

That wish of Evelio was granted. After he died, his dead body was brought to his Alma Mater, Ateneo de Manila. Sympathizers lined up the streets of Manila when his bier passed by. Antiquenos waited for him when his coffin passed by in Pandan until it arrived at the new capitol for the wake. And on the day he was buried, it even surpassed the number of mourners that attended Ninoy’s burial a year before Evelio’s.

 

Javier was 43 years old. He was born to Everardo Autajay Javier of Hamtic and Feliza Bellaflor of Culasi on October 31, 1942 in Barrio Lanag, Hamtic, now renamed as Brgy. EBJ. He married Precious Bello Lotilla of Sibalom with whom he had two sons, Francis Gideon and David Ignatius.

 

He graduated first honors from San Jose Elementary School in 1955 and also first honors from Ateneo de Manila High School in 1959. He finished his Bachelor of Arts major in History and Govenment at the Ateneo College of Arts and Sciences in 1963, his Bachelor of Laws also at the Ateneo, in 1968, he took and passed the bar examination.

 

The Batasan elections in 1984 showed how rampant cheating happened. Evelio was leading during the early counting, but when returns coming from San Remigio, a mountainous municipality in Antique, came wrapped in cement paper and not in the usual ballot boxes, it was then that Evelio was cheated of his victory.In December 1985, he was designated UNIDO representative for Antique and campaigned for Cory Aquino and Salvador Laurel throughout the province amidst threats against his life.

 

On February 11, 1986, while the snap presidential elections canvass of votes was going on at the new capitol, Evelio who was sitting on a big boulder under the narra tree at the provincial plaza, was mercilessly gunned down by six unidentified hooded men. R. Estañol Otico of the Manila Times described the incident as “ the latest in a series of savage crimes that have made democracy and freedom meaningless in this country. The assassination shows what a desperate regime, and it’s even more desperate followers, will do to stay in power.”

 

“He must have died a very frustrated man,” somebody said of Javier upon learning of the murder.

 

Frustration must be the very same feeling of millions of Filipinos who, after a week of casting their ballots, still do not know if their votes have been counted properly.

 

“The brutes that killed Evelio did not just snuff out the life of a talented young leader. They also muffled some more, the cries of an oppressed people long pining for deliverance. But Javier did not die in vain. His death may yet bring to life a million other Javiers who, fired up by the same vision, will turn a seemingly impossible dream into a reality. “(The Manila Times, Feb. 13, 1986).

 

 

SOURCE: http://itsmorefuninantique.com/?p=1012