The campaign rally for Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte in the province of Antique has been moved to March, following public backlash.
The Marcos-Duterte sortie was scheduled to be held at the Evelio B. Javier Freedom Park in San Jose, Antique on Feb. 24 — but organizers said that they were rescheduling the rally “to give way to the 36th People Power Anniversary program.”
Antique residents expressed their disgust on social media when it was announced that the Marcos-Duterte rally would be held a day before the People Power anniversary at the same venue where the late governor Evelio Javier was shot to death in 1986.
Javier served as the director of Cory Aquino’s campaign in the 1986 snap presidential elections against Bongbong’s father, President Ferdinand Marcos.
The Antique governor was assassinated by heavily armed men on Feb. 11 that same year, sustaining 24 bullet wounds.
The 1986 snap election was one of the landmark events that led to the historical People Power Revolution as Filipinos sought to drive Marcos out of Malacañang.
Javier is considered a major hero in Antique, with the park and the province’s airport named after him.
The late governor’s son, Gideon Javier, wrote on social media that he hoped Antiqueños “enjoyed the bit of news” that Marcos was no longer showing up at his father’s site of death.
“I hope you have heard the news that the dictator’s son will no longer be speaking at the hallowed ground where my father died to free us from his family. I hope it gave you a restful weekend.”
“Five days after they killed my father, Imelda Marcos took one million pesos in cash from her bedroom and gave it to the killer. They found the ledger in Malacanang after the EDSA Revolution,” he wrote.
The Los Angeles Times obtained a ledger from Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in 1990 showing that they had paid 1 million pesos to Arturo Pacificador, Javier’s opponent and a Marcos crony, five days after the latter was killed.
“We will need to return the fight to preserve our democracy very soon,” he added.
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