Evelio Javier remembered

When I visited Antique late last year for the inauguration of heritage landmarks, whose restoration was spearheaded by Antiqueña Sen.

- JOANNE RAE M. RAMIREZ

Two martyrs: Ninoy Aquino (right) and Evelio Javier, statues sculpted by Julie Lluch

(ERIC LACHICA)

Loren Legarda, I happened to meet old-time residents who recalled the martyrdom of former Gov. Evelio B. Javier. Javier was gunned down in broad daylight on Feb. 11, 1986, two weeks before people power erupted on EDSA.One of them recounted that Evelio was shot by hooded men less than 100 meters away from the provincial Capitol, where election returns were being canvassed and tallied after the “snap” presidential elections of 1986.

“Evelio could have run back to the Capitol to seek refuge,” I was told, “but he was protecting the people inside. He didn’t want them hit by stray bullets.”

Instead, the wounded Evelio ran through the plaza in front of the Capitol, droplets of his blood leaving indelible marks on some rocks there. His assassins caught up with him in an outhouse across the plaza. Someone remembered him saying “lock the gates” to protect the residents.

His son Gideon, now 56, recalled during rites last Feb. 11 marking his father’s 40th death anniversary in the very same plaza where he was gunned down, “Forty years ago, my father came to this plaza ready to die. He had placed a long distance call to Los Angeles and spoke to each of us — my mother, my younger brother and myself to say goodbye.”

“The killers walked into the plaza, guns blazing as everyone ran. My father’s companions were unarmed because any resistance would just be a win-win for the heavily-armed goons. Resistance would simply be their excuse to claim it was an encounter,” he said.

Gideon said his father was not driven by the things that normally drive politicians.