ILOILO CITY—Governor Rhodora Cadiao of Antique province clarified she only wanted to have an official name for the airport and not erase the legacy of a slain hero whose February 11, 1986 assassination would be one of the key events that led to the People Power revolution and ending the Marcos dictatorship.
“Evelio Javier was a respected man. He had earned his place in history. No one can rewrite history,” Cadiao said.
While the airport located in the capital of San Jose de Buenavista is also known to most locals as Evelio B. Javier Airport, there were no documents to support it.
“It was not renaming the airport as what people thought,” Cadiao told Manila Bulletin.
The lady governor has since dropped the proposal to have an official name for the airport after receiving backlash on social media and from Gideon Javier, the son of Evelio.
“There is no intention to displace or do wrong to your family and your late father who endeared himself to the people of Antique,” Cadiao said in a letter to Gideon.
The proposal for the Antique Provincial Board to give the airport an official name is in connection with the attempt to secure funding from the national government to further develop the airport and make it international standard.
The airport only resumed commercial operations last December 2018. More than 12 years prior to that, many Antiqueños had to fly in and out via the airports of neighboring Aklan or Iloilo provinces.
Cadiao said more needs to be done in improving infrastructures in Antique to propel more growth and development. The province has previously been ranked as one of the 10 poorest provinces in the country.