36. HAMTIC LOVES EBJ

HAMTIC LOVES EBJ

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano

29 May 2017

I can still clearly remember my Grade 5 (Bagumbayan) classroom adviser and his colleague talking about the demise of a former co-teacher in the Ateneo de Manila. Only when I got home that their story became clear to me. I overheard my parents talking about the death of another opponent of the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. Today, me and my wife, visited Antique province from Iloilo to have a memento photo of the site where the “Ninoy Aquino of Antique” fell on the fateful day of February 11, 1986. The name Evelio Javier or sometimes shortened to EBJ is a household name among Antiqueños. The province’ most distinguished hero freedom fighter of modern times was honored in many ways including the naming of the airport at the capital-town of San Jose de Buenavista as Evelio Javier Airport and 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, Capiz, Aklan, and Iloilo, the four provinces on Panay island.

For the present generation, allow me to introduce to you a young public servant and a lover of democracy whose death fuelled the People Power Revolution that overthrew Marcos. With Google as the source: Evelio Bellaflor Javier was born on October 31, 1942 to Everardo Autajay Javier (Moscoso), a prosecutor and Feliza Bellaflor, a teacher. He finished grade school in San Jose Elementary School in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique and graduated high school with first honors and college at the Ateneo de Manila University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Government and  earned his Bachelor of Laws at the Ateneo Law School in 1968. He passed the bar examination in 1968, became a college professor at the Ateneo, successful lawyer and entered into politics. He was a member of the law school's Fraternal Order of Utopia. 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 Everardo and David Ignatius.

Javier ran for governor of Antique 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 JFK School of Government at Harvard University in 1981 on a scholarship, where he earned a Masters in Public Administration. In 1984, he ran for Assemblyman in the Batasang Pambansa, and lost. Five years after his death, he was declared the winner by the Philippine Supreme Court.

Time magazine narrates that at 10:00 on the fateful 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 his friends on the steps in front of the capitol building while guarding the ballot boxes of election returns from the recently concluded Snap Presidential Elections, the masked gunmen opened fire. 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 and 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 him and finished him off with a burst of gunfire. His body had 24 bullet wounds.

Evelio Javier, 44, was killed at a time when public outrage was at its height against the Marcos dictatorship. Javier’s body was flown to Manila where it lay in state at the Ateneo de Manila. Our class in Ateneo attended the wake of Javier. This was the first time I saw President Cory Aquino dressed in fashionable yellow, the official color of the opposition, who attended the wake and comforted Javier’s wife. My dad was a fraternal brother of Javier in the Ateneo, both are Utopians and they staged a vigil. Javier’s assassination served as rallying point for the forces which coalesced to become the EDSA people power. It was then flown back to Antique for burial. Provincemates mourned their young leader’s death in an epic funeral procession that ran the 160-kilometer length of the island of Panay.

Javier was a native of Barangay Lanag (now Barangay Evelio Javier), Hamtic, Antique. Javier is one of the two prominent Hamticanon. The other is the liberator of Antique, General Leandro Fullon y Locsin (1974-1904) who commanded during the Philippine Revolution and Philippine-American War and who later served as Governor. Hamtic was formerly named “Antique”, after which the province was named. They called this place “Hantik” after the humming big black ants that produce the sound “tik” when they bite. The Spanish chroniclers, influenced by the French, recorded the region's name as “Hantique”, which was then read as 'antique (silent 'h'). The locals then pronounced the name into its present name "Antique" (än-ti-ké). It is the oldest town and the first capital of the province before it was transferred to San Jose de Buenavista in 1802. Hamtic was then relegated to a mere barrio, forming a part of San Jose. By virtue of Executive Order No. 3 signed by President Ramon Magsaysay, Hamtic was separated and created as a regular municipality and was officially inaugurated on January 20, 1954.

Folklore expounds on the local history of Hamtic. Harrybalais.com narrates on the first Malay settlement during circa 1212. A fleet of small boats had for days and weeks sailed through the ancient waters of Sulu Sea in search for new settlements. They just escaped Borneo away from the clutches of the tyrant Sultan Makatunaw. Then an island had mystically gravitated them and had them dropped anchors. Datus Puti, Sumakwel, Bangkaya, Paiburong, Paduhinog, Dumangsol, Dumangsil, Dumaluglog, Balkasusa, and Lubay presented themselves to the village chief Marikudo, his wife Maniwantiwan and their subjects. They came in peace and to purchase tracts of land to which they establish settlements and kingdoms. The ten Bornean datus offered precious gifts to the Ati royalties such as a golden salakot, pearl necklaces, and other jewelries and treasures, in exchange for their new settlements: prime lots in the vast plains of Panay. Marikudo threw a lavish feast to celebrate what had become the Barter of Panay. The Atis then left to find and found new territories in the mountains of the great island. Other Bornean datus went on to conduct further expedition trips for more territories. Hence, the Confederation of Madja-as was born. But the Barter of Panay and the Confederation of Madja-as were over the years debunked as pure myths. But in these days and age, they are still part of lores deeply ingrained in the fabric of the island. The spot in Malandog, Hamtic, Antique, facing the vast Sulu Sea, a shrine was erected to forever commemorate this great lore.

EBJ is definitely loved by Antiqueños and freedom-loving Filipinos as shown in the numerous honors given to him. EBJs hometown Hamtic, considered by the locals as the first Malayan settlement in the country, contributed much to Philippine folklore.