Ka Bel: Working Class Hero
Here is the column I wrote about Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran published in the June 16-30, 2008 issue of The Philippine Reporter:
Working Class Hero
THIS ISSUE is like a Special Issue on Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran. (Check pages 1, 8, 9, 11, 22 and other pages.) Ka Bel is fresh in the memory of many of us in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg. He, together with Rep. Satur Ocampo and Rep. Luz Ilagan, visited those cities last April and spoke before audiences and met hundreds of mostly Filipinos and Canadians. The three Filipino solons were on a mission to ask the Canadian government to help stop the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. They also presented to many groups and in many events in these cities the state of human rights in the Philippines and asked support for the struggle for freedom and to end poverty in the country.
It came as a shock to us that Ka Bel, who we listened to as he spoke passionately and tirelessly about the poverty, the hunger and desperation among the working classes in his country, died on Tuesday, May 20 after an accident in his home.
In Toronto, I attended three of his speaking engagements. I met him first at the York University campus, then at OISE, University of Toronto and then at the Casa Manila forum of the Philippine Press Club-Ontario.
On the day of the three solons’ departure from Toronto to Manila on April 18, I was in the group who saw them off at Pearson International Airport. That’s when I interviewed him after a late lunch before they boarded their plane.
I had read a lot about his deep involvement in the anti-Marcos dictatorship struggle when he was imprisoned for years, his escape from detention, his leadership in the strong labor movement, capped by his years as the leader of Kilusang Mayo Uno, his enormous work as People’s Parliamentarian at the Philippine House of Representatives and his tireless participation and leadership in the parliament of the streets to his last days. No wonder, the present Arroyo regime had tried to silence Ka Bel by putting him in prison for one and half years which caused the dramatic deterioration of his health.
At age 75 and with a track record of more than 50 years of involvement in the struggle for meaningful social change for the working poor people, Ka Bel is a working class hero.
He’s been called the New Andres Bonifacio during his funeral. That title he rightfully deserves. Not only because of his total devotion to the working class as he was known as the leading advocate for workers’ rights and welfare in the Philippine scene. It’s also because he came from their ranks, being a worker himself, and never left their ranks throughout his life.
In Congress, he was known as the poorest parliamentarian in terms of material wealth but the richest in contribution because he was the partylist representative who filed the most number of bills and resolutions (130) in the 13th Congress, a feat recognized by the prestigious Philipppine Center for Investigative Journalism. He was chosen Most Outstanding Congressman for four years, from 2002 to 2005.
On the three occasions I listened to him in the Toronto forums, he was soft-spoken and always took the side of the oppressed in any topic. He was impassioned and emphatic when he spoke in Pilipino.
At the PPCO forum, he talked about the hard struggle in Congress which is overwhelmingly dominated by the Arroyo regime’s stooges and allies. Yet Beltran performed his job tirelessly and meticulously working on legislation after legislation that served to uplift the condition of the workers, mainly through wage hikes, opposition to anti-labor laws and policies and to the current land reform program that ironically has resulted in further depriving the peasants of the fruits of their labor for decades.
To those who knew him personally, Ka Bel, as tough as he was a figther, had a big heart for everyone in the rank and file of the countless mass organizations he led and related to. He was even known to be soft to the policemen assigned to demonstration sites, calling them kababayan (countrymen) and asking them to open their eyes to the conditions of the country.
During those days he was in Toronto, he had a ready smile for everyone but he never tired of talking about his people. He said the situation was simple: The Filipino people are hungry and they are oppressed. And people have to do something about it.
Ka Bel is truly a working class hero. He will be remembered in history as a valuable contribution of the Philippines to the international movement to liberate the working class in the league of Isabelo de los Reyes, Crisanto Evangelista, Felixberto Olalia and Rolando Olalia. He is truly the New Andres Bonifacio.
I am so grateful I met the man.