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.

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

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

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