Eighth of the 11 children of Lilia Jaravello, Juvelyn Jaravello was adopted as a six-month-old, sickly baby by her aunt Elsa. (The family surname is also written as Jaravelo and Jarabelo.) Juvelyn would grow up to be a cheerful, lively girl who liked competing in contests (even beauty contests) and who would train to be a student captain in the citizens’ army training program in high school.
Her aunt put her through school, so that she went on to get a degree in commerce from the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos in Bacolod City.
Jaravello joined the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines during her last semester in college, and became its coordinator for northern Negros shortly after. After graduation, she joined her home parish in Fabrica, where she led bible-sharing sessions, did parish surveys, and took charge of distributing food assistance to the needy. A member of the Children of Mary, this hardworking young woman of great faith became president of the diocesan youth organization. She went fulltime into community organizing, particularly in the town of Escalante.
It was a time when popular anger against the Marcos dictatorship was building up to a powerful climax. Communities had become conscious of their downtrodden situation, and they wanted to put an end to it. All over the country, mass protests were being organized. In September 1985, a three-day people’s strike – welgang bayan – was planned to be held all over the island of Negros, the center of the sugar industry and ruled by the so-called sugar barons.
The protest strike was being called to make a stand “against hunger, extreme poverty, and increasing militarization.” It would be held during the “Thanksgiving celebration” that the Marcos regime declared every year to commemorate the “New Society.” Twenty-eight bus and jeepney drivers’ associations stopped plying their routes. Public and private schools suspended classes, offices and some business establishments were closed in support of the strike. On Sept. 20, the rallies in Bacolod city, Binalbagan and Kabankalan proceeded peacefully despite threats of dispersal by the constabulary.
In Escalante, thousands of people massed in front of the municipal hall and on the road to Bacolod, 98 kilometers away. They were mostly farmers and sugarworkers. Jaravello helped organize the youth of Fabrica to support the strike, and during the strike itself, she was kept busy cooking and doing chores in support of the strikers.
On the afternoon of the second day of the strike, the strikers were attacked by a combined force consisting of constabulary soldiers, paramilitary members, and armed goons of local sugar plantation owners. As they fired water cannons on the demonstrators, Jaravello moved to the frontline. “I should have brought my shampoo,” she joked. When the firetrucks ran out of water, the soldiers started throwing teargas canisters.
One of the canisters fell near Jaravello who picked it up, to throw away from the people. Just then, a soldier pulled a trigger, and she was hit. Then machine guns from atop the municipal hall started firing. A stampede followed. People ran in different directions. Some screamed for a stop in the firing. Some had their arms linked, still trying to keep the strike in formation, when bullets hit them. Some were hit as they ran for the safety of the nearby sugarcane fields. Others tried to protect their fellow strikers and ended up getting hurt themselves.
Jaravello and 19 others died in the Escalante massacre, mostly from gunshot wounds; hundreds were hurt.
More than 50 persons were charged for the crimes, among them Armando Gustilo, a former congressman with a private army, and who was close to Marcos; he died abroad in 1986.
