This mobility bought a little more time for Beltran, who was the next target of the state police. Ka Osang recalls how their cramped home in Gao, Fairview was raided the day after.
“Agosto 14 nang madaling-araw, sinalakay din ng mga armadong naka-damit sibilyan ang aming bahay. Hinanap ang aking asawa’t tinutukan ng armalite sa tulugan ng aking anak na lalaki at isang pamangkin. Hinalughog hanggang kasulok-sulokan ang buong bahay, at nang walang makuha’t wala rin ang aking asawa’y, pilit na pinaaamin na siya’y itinatago namin at kung saan,” she said. (Armed men in civilian clothes raided our house early morning of August 14. They were looking for my husband and even poked an armalite at the bed where my son and a nephew were. They searched the entire house, and when they found nothing and nobody, tried to force us into admitting that we were hiding him and divulge his whereabouts.)
Beltran, however, would eventually fall into the hands of the military four days later. At around 6:30 p.m. on August 18, 1982, PC men led by Col. Rolando Abadilla caught up with Beltran and arrested him during a press conference on the labor crackdown, at the Jade Vine Restaurant along United Nations Avenue, Manila.
The arrest happened so fast, Beltran recalls, despite the security precautions he took. Less than five minutes after he entered the restaurant, PC men barged in and knocked him out, effecting his arrest and capture in a matter of seconds.
“Pinompyang ako (ni Abadilla) gamit ang butt ng .45 caliber (na baril) at ng kanyang kaliwang kamay…Nawalan ako ng malay, mga tunog lang ng siren ang naaalala ko. Paggising ko, nabasa ko na nasa bandang Santolan na kami” (Using both hands, Abadilla hit me between the ears with one hand using a butt of a .45 caliber gun…I lost consciousness and all I heard next were the sounds of a siren. When I woke up, I saw that we were the Santolan), he said.
“Alam ko na papunta na ako sa Crame,” he said. (I knew that I was going to Camp Crame.)
Period of trials
His arrest on August 18 plunged Ka Bel and Ka Osang into one of the most difficult and nightmarish periods of their lives that neither would forget two decades after.
Charged with inciting to sedition and for conspiracy to commit rebellion (exactly the same charges leveled against Beltran today) “in connection with a reported plan of subversives to launch bombings, strikes, and other terroristic activities,” Ka Bel together with Ka Bert was jailed in solitary isolation, in 2 x 4 meter cells inside Camp Crame, the PC ‘s national headquarters.
