NEVER FORGET THIS FACE In time for the 47th anniversary of the declaration of martial law during the Marcos regime, which student activists are marking on Saturday, a papier-mâché depicting the late dictator has been installed at the entrance of Palma Hall on the University of the Philippines Diliman campus in Quezon City. —Niño Jesus Orbeta
ILOILO CITY—Bernie Salcedo, 67, is volunteering to speak in schools in Antique province about slain former governor Evelio “Beloy” Javier and the Marcos dictatorship early this month.
“Some Antiquenos have forgotten or do not know the sacrifices of Beloy,” he told the INQUIRER in an interview in March 2022.
Salcedo, who is among supporters of Javier who are pushing for the putting up of a museum in honor of the slain Marcos opposition leader, said there is a need to educate the present generation of Antiqueños of the horrors of Martial Law in their province and the many provinces mates who fell victims of the tyrannical rule.
He was among those who expressed outrage over the planned campaign rally of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio at the Evelio B. Javier (EBJ) Freedom Park in the capital town of San Jose.
The rally scheduled on February 24, the 36th anniversary of the 1986 Edsa People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, was aborted amid an outcry from Antiqueños.
The planned rally of the late dictator’s son at the plaza brought back painful memories for Salcedo.
On February 11, 1986, Salcedo was among a group of four in a huddle with Javier at the plaza while monitoring the results of the February 7 snap presidential elections between Marcos and Corazon “Cory” Aquino.
Heavily armed men approached them near the old provincial capitol and fired at the group.
Javier was hit in the right shoulder and fled to a rice store.
But the gunmen pursued and finished him off inside a bathroom where he had sought refuge.
Salcedo and others in their group suffered injuries and hid after the attacks fearing for their lives.
Javier’s body bore 26 bullet wounds and was taken to Manila three days later for necrological services at Ateneo de Manila.
Tens of thousands of his province mates met his convoy when he was brought home to Antique and when he was buried.
The late former assemblyman Arturo Pacificador, a close ally of Marcos, was tagged as the mastermind in the killing of Javier.
On Oct. 12, 2004 or 18 year’s after Javier’s murder, the Antique Regional Trial Court (RTC) acquitted Pacificador and three of his co-accused in the murder of Javier and the wounding of several others.
But lawyer Avelino Javellana and seven others, mostly security personnel of Pacificador, were convicted.
But Pacificador’s son Rodolfo whom the court said was the one who “ran (the) affairs” evaded arrest and fled to Canada where he was granted political asylum.
Pacificador was also acquitted in the killing of seven supporters of Javier on May 13, 1984, at the Pangpang Bridge in Sibalom town in Antique which has become known as the infamous “Pangpang massacre”.
On March 7, 1996, the Antique RTC convicted five of Pacificador’s bodyguards of seven counts of murder and one count of frustrated murder.
The Supreme Court upheld the RTC ruling on Feb. 6, 2002.
But 36 years after Javier’s killing, re-electionist Antique Gov. Rhodora Cadiao and Antique Rep. Loren Legarda have openly declared support for Marcos and Duterte-Carpio.
Legarda is seeking to return to her old seat in the Senate under Marcos’ Uniteam.
When opposition presidential candidate and Vice President Leni Robredo held a campaign rally at the EBJ Freedom Park before the aborted Marcos rally, none of the province’s 18 mayors were present.
Cadiao also did not attend the rally but thousands of Antiqueños joined the rally, the biggest in Antique in recent years.
Social media was rife with allegations that Legarda and Cadiao had directed or pressured the mayors not to attend Robredo’s rally.
But Cadiao has openly denied the allegation saying she was in Manila during the time of the rally and she was represented by Vice Mayor Edgar Denosta.
“Deputy Speaker ‘Inday’ Loren Legarda had nothing to do with my absence from the province. As I said, I have to attend an important meeting in Manila that had been previously set and which cannot be canceled anymore,” Cadiao said in a statement.
She said “no one had given any instructions for the mayors not to attend the meeting.”
Mayor Mary Jean Te, president of the provincial chapter of League of the Municipalities of the Philippines, also issued a statement denying the allegations.
“It is not true that we were prohibited or ordered not to attend (the rally). It is also not true that we are being pressured to support any candidate,” she said.
But a source who spoke to the INQUIRER on condition of anonymity said many mayors were silent and afraid that campaign funds would be withheld if they showed support for Robredo and not Marcos.
“Of course they will publicly deny being pressured,” the source said.
For Salcedo, the controversy over the aborted rally of Marcos in the province has convinced him to come out again and become politically active, especially in ensuring that sacrifices of Javier and other Antiqueños during the Marcos dictatorship will not be forgotten.
More importantly, Salcedo said the hard-won victory against tyrannical rule should be preserved.