Protests, Int’l Alarm
Mark Beltran's Third Month in Illegal Detention
Exactly three months have passed since Anakpawis (toiling
masses) Party List Rep. Crispin Beltran was arbitrarily detained by the
Arroyo administration. And the nationwide and international protests over
the progressive parliamentarian's illegal and unconstitutional detention
show no signs of abating.
BY
LISA ITO
Bulatlat
Nationwide Protests
In Metro Manila, protesters gathered in front of the Department of Justice
(DOJ) in Manila Thursday morning to denounce DOJ's condoning of Beltran's
continuing arbitrary detention and the relentless extra-judicial killings
of activists and journalists since 2001.
The Manila police, however, dispersed the rallyists even as they tried to
negotiate and regroup along the nearby Taft Avenue and Liwasang Bonifacio.
The militants staged a noise barrage at the Welcome Rotonda later in the
afternoon in protest against the police's harassment.
IN FIGHTING STANCE:
Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
in his room at the Philippine Heart Center
ARKIBONGBAYAN PHOTO |
Officers of Anakpawis and the Free Ka Bel Movement (FKBM) are planning to
file charges against the Manila police, led by a certain Station Commander
Miranda, for "stealing" around P15,000 worth of campaign materials and
paraphernalia from the group's service vehicle during the said dispersals.
Up north, more than a hundred members of the Anakpawis-Baguio Benguet and
the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance successfully spearheaded a mass action in
Baguio City, capping the protest by releasing balloons with a "Free Ka Bel"
streamer, Leonida Tundagui, of the KMU-Cordillera said. Noise barrages
were also held by public transport formations in the Southern Tagalog and
Ilocos regions.
Protests against DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzales extended to the Visayas
region. Activists from Anakpawis brought their rallies to Gonzales'
hometown in Iloilo City, Anakpawis Vice-President for Visayas Nador
Malicay said. Noise barrages were also held near Gaisano Metro in Cebu
City. |
Protests were also held in the cities of Davao, Tagum, Compostela Valley,
General Santos and Polomok, with Beltran's supporters staging a support
caravan in Cagayan de Oro City.
Anakpawis vice-president for Mindanao Antonio Flores said Beltran’s
continuing detention prevents reforms from being implemented, citing the
congressman's inauguration of numerous pro-poor projects in the region a
few weeks before his arrest.
"Arroyo is denying us of our voice in the elite-dominated Congress.
Putting Ka Bel in jail means delaying the approval of his pro-poor
legislation such as the wage hike bill or House Bill 345," Flores said.
Growing international support
While Beltran's legal battle against the rebellion charges filed against
him continues, he continues to receive international support from fellow
parliamentarians, labor groups, and individuals.
Militants recently challenged Congress
leadership and Malacañang to uphold the recommendations of an
international organization of parliamentarians to release Beltran on the
presumption of innocence. The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU) during its 114th Assembly last May 12 in Nairobi, Kenya
adopted a resolution urging Philippine authorities to release Beltran from
detention, as recommended by the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of
Parliamentarians.
The IPU Governing Council "recalls the principle of presumption
on innocence, which implies that pre-trial detention should be the
exception and as short as possible" and "consequently urges the
authorities to release [me] forthwith, particularly in view of his state
of health and the fact that the court ordered his release in March 2006".
"Article III of the Constitution of
the Philippines contains a Bill of Rights which in its Sections 12 to 19
enshrines extensive fair trial guarantees, and that the Philippines is a
party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and thus
bound to respect the right to liberty and to fair trial, as enshrined in
Articles 9 and 14," the resolution noted.
The IPU Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians, meanwhile, said it
will continue to examine Beltran's case and will issue a report to the IPU
Governing Council at the 115th IPU Assembly scheduled in October.
Other foreign lawmakers have individually expressed their support for
Beltran's release.
Australian Federal MP Anthony Albanese recently expressed concern over the
state of democracy in the Philippines. Albanese charged in a statement
quoted in an Australian newspaper that "a democratically-elected member of
the Philippines Parliament [sic] Mr. Crispin Beltran was arrested and
detained under the special powers of arrest granted under the state of
emergency" by the Arroyo administration.
"The arrest and detention of one's political opponents under cover of
emergency powers and without warrant are… a cause for legitimate
concern…The suppression of political dissent cannot be allowed to be the
legacy of the people power movement that captured the world's attention
some twenty years ago," Albanese said.
In the U.S., Rep. Bob Hasegawa of 11th legislative district, in Seattle,
Washington signed the resolution of the Asian Pacific American Labor
Alliance (APALA) National calling for Beltran's immediate release of
detained Philippine labor leader Crispin Beltran last April 29.
Tess Dioquino, secretary of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May first
movement)-International Department, said messages of solidarity and
support for Beltran have poured in from different countries, alongside
protest actions in Austria, Hong Kong, the U.S., Belgium and Japan.
Continuing struggle
Beltran, meanwhile, expressed
frustrations that he would not be able to personally lobby for pro-poor
reforms at Congress, which adjourns on June 9. The fiery solon is known
among Congress reporters and fellow solons for his lengthy and weekly
privileged speeches mostly on issues affecting the Philippine labor,
migrant and urban poor sectors.
Beltran nevertheless challenged
Congress to "uphold a genuinely pro-people and pro-worker stance by
supporting with finality House Bill (HB) 345 and HB 1064, calling for a
P125 and P3,000 legislated across-the-board nationwide wage increase for
private sector workers and government employees, respectively".
Despite having been touted by the House leadership as a priority
bill early this May, HB 345 remains pending at the plenary level.
"In this time of spiraling oil price hikes amidst the continuing
deregulation of the downstream oil industry, I also urge Congress to
consider the prioritization of HB 1065, which calls for a repeal of the
Oil Deregulation Act of 1998," he added.
Beltran called on supporters to "continue the struggle for land,
wages, jobs, and rights".
"I exhort supporters from the broad masses of the people, and through
progressive formations and peoples' organizations, to continue exposing
and opposing the repressive, anti-poor, and undemocratic character of this
administration. Time will come when the Arroyo administration will have to
fully account for, and pay the price of, its injustices and excesses
towards the toiling masses," Beltran said.
Police arrested the 73-year-old solon and labor leader on the
basis of a legally invalid warrant and arbitrarily detained at Camp Crame
last Feb. 25. Only later were charges of inciting to sedition and
rebellion filed against him by the DOJ.
Due to the rapid deterioration of his health in prison, Beltran, or "Ka
Bel", was rushed to the PNP General Hospital last March 2. On April 26, he
was allowed by the Makati Regional Trial Court 137 to be taken to a
different hospital for medical treatment and monitoring of various
cardiovascular diseases.
Confined at Room 427 of the Philippine Heart Center, Ka Bel spent here his
first Labor Day in two decades away from a protest rally.
Beltran currently ranks as the third poorest solon in the Philippine
Congress. Bulatlat
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