Evelio Bellaflor Javier (October 31, 1942 – February 11, 1986)
was a Filipino politician. He served as governor of the province of
Antique
An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...
and was an opponent of the dictatorship of President
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
. His assassination on February 11, 1986, was one of the causes of the
People Power Revolution
The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...
that overthrew Marcos.
Evelio Javier's brother,
Exequiel Javier
Exequiel Bellaflor Javier (born October 16, 1946) is a Filipino politician. He has been elected to six terms as a Member of the House of Representatives, representing the Lone District of Antique from 1987 to 1998, and from 2001 to 2010. He h ...
, served as congressman from 1987 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2010 and governor from 1998 to 2001, and 2010 to 2015. In 2018, Javier was identified as a Motu Propio human rights violations victim of the
Martial Law Era by the Human Rights Victims Claims Board.
Early life and marriage
Evelio Javier was born on October 31, 1942,
in Barangay Lanag (now Brgy. Evelio Javier),
Hamtic,
Antique
An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...
, to Everardo Autajay Javier (Moscoso), a
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
and Feliza Bellaflor, a teacher.
He finished grade school in San Jose Elementary School in
San Jose de Buenavista
San Jose de Buenavista, officially the Municipality of San Jose de Buenavista, ( krj, Banwa kang San Jose de Buenavista; hil, Banwa sang San Jose de Buenavista; tl, Bayan ng San Jose de Buenavista), is a 1st class municipality and capital of th ...
, Antique and graduated high school with first honors and college in
Ateneo de Manila University
, mottoeng = Light in the Lord
, type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution
, established = December 10, 1859
, religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits)
, academic_aff ...
.
There, he received his
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in History and Government and he earned his
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
at
Ateneo Law School
, mottoeng = Light in the Lord
, type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution
, established = December 10, 1859
, religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits)
, academic_affi ...
in 1968.
He passed the
bar examination
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Australia
Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associa ...
in 1968 before he became a college professor at the Ateneo, a successful lawyer, and entered into politics.
He married Precious Bello Lotilla, daughter of Vicente Lotilla and Angelina Bello of
Sibalom, Antique in Manila on December 29, 1968. They had two sons, Francis Gideon and David Ignatius.
Governor of Antique
Javier ran for
governor of Antique
The Governor of Antique ( krj, Gobernador kang Antique; fil, Punong Lalawigan ng Antique) is the chief executive of the provincial government of Antique province, Antique, Philippines. Like all local government heads in the Philippines, the go ...
and won in 1971 by one of the largest margins in history, making him, at the age of 28, the Philippines' youngest governor.
He did not run again for election in 1980.
Instead he attended the
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1981 on a scholarship, where he earned a
Masters in Public Administration
The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...
.
May 1984 elections
In
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
, Javier ran for a seat in the
Batasang Pambansa
The Batasang Pambansa Complex, or simply the Batasan (), is the seat of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. It is located along the Batasan Road in Batasan Hills, Quezon City.
The complex was initially the home of the Batasang Pa ...
to represent
Antique's lone district, but lost.
He was known to be a crowd favorite wherein he won the hearts of the people of his province. Arturo Pacificador, a member of the
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan
The New Society Movement ( fil, Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, KBL), formerly named the New Society Movement of United Nationalists, Liberals, et cetera ( fil, Kilusang Bagong Lipunan ng Nagkakaisang Nacionalista, Liberal, at iba pa, KBLNNL), is a ...
(KBL) party, was his competition who was known to have a lot of powerful people who supported him.
The heat of the competition between the two climaxed during the eve of the elections on May 13, 1984. Seven of Javier's supporters were killed in what came to be known as the Sibalom Bridge Massacre. This, along with the massive election fraud prompted Javier's filing of a protest at the Supreme Court.
During the time of the elections, it was known that there were a lot of methods to compromise the voting results such as vote-buying and giving threats to voters. This did not only happen on the national level of elections, but also on the local elections. In the province of Antique, ballots of those who voted in the towns of Caluya, Cabate, Tibiao, Barbaza, Laua-an, and San Remigio were not placed in the boxes.
After the counting of the ballots, Pacificador won as the assemblyman for Antique. However, Javier asked to rebuke the decision of the commission due to suspicions of compromising the results of the elections, which the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
eventually decided in his favor on September 22, 1986, seven months after his death.
Assassination
At 10:00 in the morning of February 11, 1986, three or four masked gunmen riding in a Nissan Patrol jeep went to the New Capitol building in San Jose, Antique.
While Javier was talking to friends on the steps in front of the capitol building, the masked gunmen opened fire.
''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' described the scene:
The toilet was owned by Leon Pe.
The News Today at the 20th anniversary reported, "As the prostrated corpse of Javier lied on the damp cement of the comfort room, 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..." His body had 24 bullet wounds.
''Time'' reported that many in Javier's camp blamed Pacificador for the assassination:
On the day of his burial in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique, thousands of mourners followed his funeral procession to the cemetery wearing yellow shirts with yellow bands tied to their wrists.
They played his favorite song, "
The Impossible Dream", during the procession to the cemetery.
Thousands of Antiquenos there showed their anger and sorrow by crying "Justice for Evelio! We love you!" on the day of his death.
A ledger from
Ferdinand
Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...
and
Imelda Marcos
Imelda Romualdez Marcos (; born Imelda Remedios Visitacion Trinidad Romualdez; July 2, 1929) is a Filipino politician who served as the First Lady of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, wielding significant political power during the dictator ...
obtained by the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
showed that Javier's political opponent, Arturo Pacificador, received 1 million pesos from the Marcoses 5 days after his killing.
Murder case
After Javier's assassination, his family filed charges against Pacificador, while the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
Lists of current ministries of justice
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia)
* Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Just ...
filed charges against the gunmen. By October 1986, the accusation consisted of 19 people; two noteworthy ones were Javier's rival Pacificador, and Avelino Javellana, his lawyer.
Of these 19, at the time only 6 were apprehended and all others were at large including both Pacifador and Javellana.
Two of the apprehended, Romeo Nagalese and Jose Delumen, had confessed to the crime and Nagalase was discharged to be used as witness. On July 1, 1987, one of the main suspects in the case, Edgardo Iran, died during a shootout with the Cavite
PC Command in
Kawit
Kawit, officially the Municipality of Kawit ( tgl, Bayan ng Kawit), is a first-class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population ...
, Cavite. In May 1989, Javellana was arrested, but on his pleas of health and safety was not held in Antique jail, but to be followed by two police escorts to Iloilo Mission Hospital. However, before they could be transferred, the two police officers were recalled by an unforeseen emergency and was instead escorted by the Provinvial Probation Officer of Antique.
One of the apprehended Oscar Tianzon pleaded not guilty and Javellana requested right of bail, however opposition was made based on that charges of murder are not given the right of bail if evidence is strong. Tianzon was requested to be discharged as witness as he acted as lookout for the murder and the petition for bail was delayed until this could be resolved. The request was denied and Javellana's right of bail was ruled as:
"The court searched the records for evidence to corroborate the material points in the aforesaid testimony of Tianzon against Javellana but found none to corroborate his statement pointing to Javellana as the gun supplier and the plotter. Neither has the prosecution presented evidence during the hearing to determine Tianzon's qualification tending to corroborate the implication of Javellana nor did the prosecution indicate to the court where such corroboration can be found by the court."
Further showing the presiding judge was biased towards the accused was that despite allowing Nagales to be discharged he was not used as witness to two other defendants and their cases were dismissed.
The trials were suspended in 1989 when the presiding judge was accused of partiality and the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order. Petitions were made to resume the trials but these were denied in that light of the events of people power that it has become moot and academic.
During this time Javellana was placed under house arrest under Atty. Deogracias del Rosario. In 1995, Pacificador had resurfaced and was detained. Despite his detainment, Pacificador ran for governor of Antique in the
1995 election, but he lost by a wide margin to
Exequiel Javier
Exequiel Bellaflor Javier (born October 16, 1946) is a Filipino politician. He has been elected to six terms as a Member of the House of Representatives, representing the Lone District of Antique from 1987 to 1998, and from 2001 to 2010. He h ...
. Pacificador as well had petitioned for bail and was granted so in 1996.
As with above this judge had ignored the witnesses claims and even Pacificador's own admission to being in the ambush site. In the 2000s, trials were once again opened for both of them, but these trials were once again suspended when Pacificador accused the judge of being biased against them.
In 2004, the Antique Regional Trial Court acquitted Pacificador and three co-accused. However, Javellana and the others were convicted.
People Power Revolution
The assassination of Javier fueled the
People Power Revolution
The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...
that happened weeks later on February 22, 1986, which ousted
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
and made
Corazon Aquino
Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...
the
President of the Philippines
The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of t ...
.
Javier's body processed through Manila, passing
Ateneo de Manila University
, mottoeng = Light in the Lord
, type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution
, established = December 10, 1859
, religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits)
, academic_aff ...
, where he had thousands of friends and colleagues, days before the revolution.
Legacy
The day of his assassination is now marked as
Governor Evelio B. Javier Day and is a special non-working public holiday in the provinces of Antique,
Aklan
Aklan, officially the Province of Aklan ( Akeanon: ''Probinsya it Akean'' k'ɣan hil, Kapuoran sang Aklan; tl, Lalawigan ng Aklan), is a province in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Its capital is Kalibo. The province is situated ...
,
Capiz
Capiz, officially the Province of Capiz ( Capiznon/ Hiligaynon: ''Kapuoran sang Capiz''; tl, Lalawigan ng Capiz), is a province in the Philippines located in the central section of Western Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Roxas. It is ...
, and
Iloilo
Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...
, the four provinces on
Panay
Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City o ...
island.
In September 1986, Supreme Court Associate Justice
Isagani Cruz
Isagani A. Cruz (October 11, 1924 – March 21, 2013) was a Filipino judge who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1986 to 1994. He retired from the Supreme Court on October 11, 1994, due to the court's m ...
wrote about Javier at the end of his decision in ''Javier vs. COMELEC'':
An airport,
Evelio Javier Airport, in San Jose, Antique, was named in honor of Javier.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Javier, Evelio
All articles with unsourced statements
1942 births
1986 deaths
20th-century Filipino lawyers
Assassinated Filipino politicians
Ateneans honored at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
Deaths by firearm in the Philippines
Filipino democracy activists
Filipino Roman Catholics
Governors of Antique (province)
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Karay-a people
Marcos martial law victims
People from Antique (province)