THE legacy of the late Zamboanga City Mayor Cesar Cortez Climaco, among the staunchest critics of the Marcos regime, will keep flaming in the hearts of the proud Zamboangeños.
He was so endeared to the people of Zamboanga Peninsula who keep remembering him even after his death 38 years ago on November 14, 1984.
Climaco’s resistance against Martial Law and his assassination gained national prominence and a movie was made in 1994 to immortalize him titled “Mayor Cesar Climaco” starring the late Eddie Garcia in the lead role.
Last Sunday, Zamboanga City Mayor John Dalipe led a group in lighting candles and offering flowers at the site of Climaco’s assassination on Camino Nuevo Street, now called Gen. Vicente Alvarez Street.
The ‘Dia de Cesar’ is a yearly observance pursuant to a city ordinance that also has City Vice Mayor Josephine Pareja, members of the Climaco family, representatives from the security sector, and JCI officers in attendance.
A morning mass was held at the Holy Trinity Church in Pasonanca, followed by a commemorative program at the Climaco Freedom Park in Abong-Abong, Pasonanca.
Also known as CCC, Climaco ― who served as mayor of Zamboanga City for 11 years and non-consecutive terms ― was shot dead while rushing to the scene and overseeing a fire incident in downtown Zamboanga City last November 14, 1984.
Climaco, who also chaired the JCI Zamboanga in 1951 and 1953, was the most vocal voice then in Mindanao against the Marcos dictatorship.
He was killed a year after the former senator and opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr had been assassinated.
“Mayor Climaco was a legend not only in Zamboanga but to all freedom fighters. I appreciate him more after reading his life story in a book. I remember him as I remember our father too,” said Cagayan de Oro school teacher Payet Romulo.
A wife of a policeman, Romulo said their father was abducted and killed during martial law because of his similar ‘Climaco stance’ against the dictatorship.
Climaco’s brutal end had led her niece and former Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle ‘Beng’ Climaco-Salazar to denounce the support of the presidential bid of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr in the last elections.
She said, in an interview, that their family was a victim of tyranny during the late strongman’s two-decade rule as president, even recounting how the military men raided their house and planted subversive materials.
Mayor Cesar Climaco was likened to the ‘Arsenio Lacson of the South’ because of his tough attitude and style of governance as well as a principled crusade against the Marcos regime abuses that forced him to exile in the US when the president declared martial law in 1972.
He returned years later to Zamboanga and became a mayor again and passionately leading Zamboanga’s anti-Marcos movement and aggressively demanding justice for Aquino’s murder.
Climaco is also best remembered for his promise not to have a haircut until democracy in the country is restored.
Unfortunately, his call for democracy never saw the light when a perpetrator pumped a bullet into his nape.
