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Issue Number 31, October 2008
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Kapatiran Issue
No. 31, October 2008
PHILIPPINE TRIBUTES TO KA BEL
Working Class Hero Crispin "Ka Bel"
Beltran Leaves A Living Legacy
Today, Representative Crispin B Beltran, Anakpawis Party
list representative on his 3rd term in Congress, a great
labour leader, an incorruptible parliamentarian, staunch
fighter for national freedom, democracy and international
working class solidarity, died due to severe head
injuries. He was 75.
We mourn with his family and friends, comrades and
colleagues. Yet, in his passing, he left a distinctive
and brilliant legacy of fighting for the interest of the
workers and oppressed peoples. Rep. Beltran is scheduled
to file a bill to remove the e-vat (extended Value Added
Tax, the Philippine equivalent to GST. Ed.) on electric
power to lower the rates affecting his constituents. Rep.
Beltran's legislative measures are for the protection of
the underprivileged and other marginalised sectors.
Crispin Beltran, more endeared to the masses as "Ka
Bel", is a living legend and epitome of militancy
and progressive lawmaking in the country. He is currently
the Chairman of the national political party Anakpawis
(Toiling Masses) Partylist and is its re-elected
Representative in the Philippine Congress.
Having been an activist for over fifty long years, Ka Bel
is esteemed by labourers, peasants, the urban poor and
other marginalised sectors as a true defender of the
toiling masses and staunch critic of privatisation,
deregulation and other destructive policies of
globalisation.
Ka Bel also stands against the United States' war of
aggression on Iraq and its war on terror. He also is
steadfast in his call for respect for national
sovereignty and international unity against foreign
intervention.
During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, at an
early age, Ka Bel volunteered as a courier for the
guerrillas. After the war, he worked as a farm hand and
janitor to support his studies. He then worked as a
gasoline boy, messenger, bus driver and later on, a taxi
driver. At age 20, he joined his fellow drivers in a
strike against unfair labour practices. The police
attacked their picket line, injured many and claimed the
lives of three protesting workers. Since then, Ka Bel
vowed to fight alongside the working class.
He organised the Amalgamated Taxi Drivers Association,
for which he served as President from 1955 up to 1963.
Together with Felixberto 'Ka Bert' Olalia and Feliciano
Reyes, leaders of the Filipino labour movement's militant
tradition, he organised the Confederation of Labor of the
Philippines (CLP). He was CLP's Vice-President from 1963
to 1972. Ka Bel also helped found the Philippine Workers
Congress and other labour organisations such as KASAMA
and PACMAP, which de facto asserted their recognition
during Martial Law.
Under the repressive martial law, Ka Bel helped establish
the Federation of Unions in Rizal and the Philippine
Nationalist Labor Organisation (PANALO) until KMU was
founded in 1980. From 100,000, KMU's membership soared to
500,000 in the 1980s. The establishment of KMU united and
strengthened the people in its fight against the fascism
of the Marcos dictatorship.
When Marcos launched a crackdown in August 1982, Ka Bel
was one of those arrested and detained. In November 1984,
he was able to escape, and went back to organising
workers and peasants in the countryside. When Ka Rolando
"Lando" Olalia was brutally murdered in 1987,
Ka Bel took over the Presidency of KMU. He ran for
senator under the banner of Partido ng Bayan that same
year and garnered 1.52 million votes but lost due to
massive "dagdag bawas" (ballot and vote
switching) scheme of election fraud. He remained a leader
of the militant union until March 2003.
He also became a National Council Member of
multi-sectoral alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
(BAYAN, which means New Patriotic Alliance) in 1985 and
also served as its national Chairperson from 1993 to
1999. Ka Bel became the Chairman of the International
League for People's Struggles in 2002. He is also
considered as one of the pillars of international working
class solidarity in the era of globalisation.
From February 2001 to November 2003, he served as Vice
President and one of the three representatives of
Bayan Muna (People First) Partylist to Congress, where he
introduced legislations imbued with his high sense of
patriotism and advocacy of the rights and welfare of the
marginalised sectors.
In 2004, he became the representative for Anakpawis
Partylist as a sectoral representative of workers,
peasants, urban poor and other toiling masses. Ka Bel was
cited by the Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism as the partylist representative in the 13th
Congress with the most number of bills and resolutions
filed, totalling 130, and with a nearly perfect
attendance before his arrest in February 2006.
His three-term stint in the House of Representatives has
garnered him awards such as Filipino of the Year and Most
Outstanding Congressman for four consecutive years from
2002 - 2005, and in 2006, was adjudged part of the
Congressional Hall of Fame - all these and the respect of
the public he reaped even as the Arroyo regime continues
to persecute him and his fellow activists.
After his arrest and year-and-a-half long arbitrary and
illegal detention initiated by the Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo administration, Ka Bel was proven
innocent of the rebellion charges against him.
Persecution, however, persists through the fabricated
inciting to sedition case that the Metropolitan Court of
Quezon City refuses to dismiss until now, despite legal
prohibitions for duly-elected officials to be charged
with crimes punishable by not more than six years of
imprisonment such as inciting to sedition.
In October 2007, Ka Bel exposed bribery attempts by
administration allies, particularly by KAMPI member
Francis Ver (a member of Gloria’s party. Ed.). He
was offered P2 million in exchange for his support to the
weak impeachment complaint against President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo.
Ka Bel is survived by 11 children, 29 grandchildren and
five great-grand children…
Anakpawis press release, 20 May 2008.
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