Evelio B. Javier: 20th year of tribute to heroism
In commemoration of his 20th death anniversary, Antique will devote the whole month of February to Gov. Evelio B. Javier's martyrdom. With the theme "Evelio: Hero of Antique, hero of the country", the month-long observance starts on February 6 during the regular Monday flag raising ceremony of the provincial government where the Evelio B. Javier Leadership Award will be launched.
This year, the organizers' main goal is to project Evelio Javier's heroism not just in Antique and Panay but also in the whole country. It should be noted that Evelio died days before the EDSA Revolution of 1986, thus his death delivered the final blow to the people's resentment against the Marcos' dictatorship that ignited the popular uprising.
The highlight of the commemoration on February 11, the day when the late governor was slain, will be graced by Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and National Historical Institute's Executive Director Ludovico Badoy who will lead in the unveiling and blessing of the EBJ Historical Marker. This will be held after the Eucharistic celebration, grand parade and the wreath-laying with full military honors at the EBJ Freedom Park where Gov. Perez, Dir. Ludovico Badoy and Mayor Lito Atienza will also deliver their commemorative speeches in honor of the late governor.
Symposia on "Evelio hero of Antique, hero of the Filipinos" and "Evelio and the Local Governance" will also be held, tackling on Evelio's campaign trail, his love for the environment, and his role in the 1986 EDSA Revolution. Speakers on the topics will be columnist Belinda Cunanan, former congressman and governor, Jovito Plameras, Jr., Prof. Edwin Sustento, Rosemarie Yenko and Sammy Julian who was a former Evelio Javier political strategist and campaign manager, and now a Manila based journalist.
The birth of a hero
Evelio B. Javier was born to Everardo Autajay Javier of Hamtic and Feliza Bellaflor of Culasi on October 14, 1942 in Barangay Lanag (now Evelio Javier), Hamtic, Antique. Evelio later on married Precious Bello Lotilla of Sibalom, with whom he had two sons, Francis Gideon and David. A true achiever, he graduated with first honors from the San Jose Elementary School and the Ateneo de Manila High School. He finished his Bachelor of Arts Major in History and Government at the Ateneo College of Arts and Sciences in 1963 where he likewise finished his Bachelor of Laws also in 1968, when he also took and passed the Bar Examination.
Realizing his destiny for public service, he ran for Governor of Antique and won by a landslide vote in 1971. At the age of 28, he was the country's youngest governor. It was in his term that he initiated Antique's most famous festival, the Binirayan in 1974. His other brainchild, the Antique Upland Development Program, assisted by the Ford Foundation, USAID, UPLB and other development funding institutions, was the first model for sustainable development strategies for the third world countries.
He did not run for re-election in 1980, when he instead decided to pursue a scholarship grant to the J.F.K. School of Government at the Harvard University in 1981. He ran for assemblyman against an influential Marcos candidate, and lost due to fraud. Five years after his death in 1986, the Supreme Court declared him the real winner.
Martyrdom
The place was Antique New Capitol Building, in the capital town of San Jose de Buenavista, in the nearby park. In the fateful day of February 11, 1986, Tuesday, few minutes past the hour of 10 a.m., three hooded armed men alighted from a Nissan Patrol Jeep and immediately open-fired at Evelio, who was then talking with some friends.
Seeing his inevitable death coming, Evelio, a natural hero, evaded what could have been a resultant death for his friends when after shouting at said friends to dock for cover, scampered around to drive the mercenaries away from his friends. He sustained gunshot wounds on his left shoulder and leg in the initial gunshots. Bleeding profusely, he scampered for safety by zigzagging the 50-meter stretch across the circular park away from the Capitol building and in the process collapsed in an artificial moat. With his strength almost ebbed, he somehow managed to clamber up amid the hail of whizzing bullets from his pursuers.
He sought for safety in a comfort room owned by a certain Leon Pe where he was cornered by his chasing attackers. Showing no mercy except brutality, the killers riddled his body and head with simultaneous volley of fires notwithstanding the pleadings of their dying victim.
As the prostrated corpse of Javier lied on the damp cement of the comfort booth, another gunman, hankering for a kill, unmasked himself and made a shrill outcry - "Can you recognize me? Stand up and fight!"
Whereupon, he fired the coup de grace directed at the head which ended the once brilliant career of EBJ whose obsession was to make his people enjoy the atmosphere of peace, justice, freedom and democracy and to achieve what he had revealed that he sustained 24 bullet wounds which pierced through the different part of his body. (Antique Monitor, 1987)
Evelio may have died, but his dreams for his people lived on. Thousands of weeping Antiqueños followed him to his final resting ground to the tune of his favorite theme song "Impossible Dream". Hundreds still tied yellow ribbons along the streets to the cemetery. Filled with mixed feelings of sorrow and anger, Antiqueños paid their last respect to the person who had captured their dreams and aspirations.
Javier is dead, but his ideas did not die with him, neither were they buried with him. His thoughts and ideas are still alive, and will forever linger in every Antiqueños heart.