Ka Bel stayed on as president of the KMU until March 2003.
He also served as a member of the National Council of the multi-sectoral alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) in 1985 and became its national chairperson from 1993 to 1999. From 2001 to 2003, he was Vice President of the Bayan Muna (People First) Partylist and served the first of his three terms as member of the Philippine House of Representatives. In 2004 and 2007, he was elected as the representative under the Anakpawis Partylist.
In Congress, Ka Bel excelled in sponsoring bills characterized by a high sense of patriotism and advocacy of the rights and welfare of the oppressed and exploited people. He was commended by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism for filing the most number of bills and resolutions and for a nearly perfect attendance until his arrest in February 2006.
His three terms in the House of Representatives resulted in his recognition as Filipino of the Year and Most Outstanding Congressman for four consecutive years from 2002 to 2005. In 2006, was honored as part of the Congressional Hall of Fame.
For being a steadfast fighter in the interest of the toiling masses and for being an incorruptible public official, Ka Bel together with other progressive members of Congress earned the ire of the Arroyo regime and became the target of persecution through false charges. He was illegally arrested and detained for one year and a half. I had the honor of being a co-accused of Ka Bel in a false charge of rebellion, which was ultimately nullified by the Philippine Supreme Court.
Until his death, the Arroyo regime persisted in persecuting him with the false charge of inciting to sedition case. Under the baton of the regime, the Metropolitan Court of Quezon City refused to dismiss the charge despite its flagrant falsity and illegality. He continued to be the target of relentless efforts of the regime to imprison him, destroy the progressive partylists and remove their representatives in Congress. Persecution through the trumping up of false charges has become a major form of human rights violation in the Philippines and has extended even to the Netherlands in the persecution of Filipinos opposing the Arroyo regime.
Ka Bel has won a place of glory in the history of the working class and people for upholding, defending and advancing their rights, interests and aspirations for a new and better world of greater freedom, democracy, social justice, development and peace against imperialism and all reaction. Ka Bel will always live in our hearts and minds. His legacy of fighting for national and social liberation will always inspire the people in the current and further generations.
Ka Bel was slated to speak on neoliberal globalization and labor before the plenary session of the Third International Assembly of the ILPS in Hong Kong on June 18, 2008. We shall miss him and hear others on the topic. But his spirit shall be present and shall move all of us. The ILPS vows to perpetuate and avail of his legacy of revolutionary resoluteness and valiant struggle in the worldwide anti-imperialist and democratic movement of the people. (Bulatlat.com)
