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ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 8
May 23, 2008
Series of 2008
CRISPIN BELTRAN: MOST OUTSTANDING LEGISLATOR
As the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) prepares its
assessment of the first 10 years of the Party-list system this year, we
deemed it apt to devote this issue analysis to the life and struggles of
Crispin Bertiz Beltran, first nominee of the Party-list group Anakpawis.
Beltran, a charismatic labor leader who died in a fatal accident last May
20 in Bulacan, was a central figure in the Party-list system - defending
it from subversion by the powers-that- be yet tirelessly asserting the
people's right to democratic representation in governance.
Crispin Beltran is an exemplary product of his times. Trained in genuine
unionism, steeled in the parliament of the streets, and more defiant after
Marcos imprisonment, he brought new politics in Congress. Through it all
he remained at the forefront of the workers' struggle – and that struggle
has produced a hero.
Beltran, known to many Filipinos as Ka (short for kasama or comrade) Bel,
was adjudged Most Consistent Outstanding Congressman from 2002-2005 and
was elevated to the Congressional Hall of Fame by the Congress Magazine in
2006. He filed the most number of bills in the 13th Congress among the
Party-list representatives and would have achieved the same record in the
present one had he not met a fatal accident on May 20. The Philippine
press and the whole nation – ruled by a government seen as one of the most
corrupt in the world - were astounded to find that he died a poor man and
had maintained an even frugal life.
But why was Beltran tagged and imprisoned as an "enemy of the state" by
two Presidents – Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s and, for a year-and-a-half,
by Gloria M. Arroyo? What kind of politics did he wage that provoked state
authorities to believe that by neutralizing him – either by arrest or
physical harm (he had faced countless attempts on his life) – they would
put an end to his ideology as well?
Humble beginnings
Born of humble beginnings in Bikol in 1933, Beltran's life had been etched
by struggles whether as a young guerilla courier fighting the Japanese
imperial occupation or as a farm worker, office sweeper, gasoline
attendant, messenger, bus driver and later, as a cab driver to support his
education. His legacy as one of the country's outstanding labor leaders
traces its roots to when, at age 20, he joined fellow drivers in a strike.
From thereon, there was no looking back. He either helped organize or
served as leader of pioneering labor organizations, the last as chair of
the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in 1987 following the abduction and brutal
murder of Rolando Olalia and his driver by military operatives. Three
years earlier, he escaped Marcos torture and imprisonment and went to the
countryside to organize workers and farm laborers.
For Beltran, working alongside the country's proletariat did not only mean
going on strikes for bread and butter or facing company executives in
tough wage negotiations. The years spent in labor leadership also produced
hard-fought lessons in ideological skirmishes with "yellow" or
compromising trade unionism and also linking up with organizations of
farmers, youth-students, urban poor and other sectors in a nationwide
cause-oriented movement. It meant taking up the cudgels of the poor
through peaceful but militant engagement with state authorities in
denouncing oppressive policies while advocating for genuine social,
economic and political reform. He knew that any picket or street protest
would be met by police truncheons, water cannons, or even bullets but
Beltran never for a second vacillated in the frontline of the struggle, as
colleagues in the street parliament would narrate.
Known for his solid pro-people leadership in the labor movement, Beltran
was invited to join the senatorial slate of the Partido ng Bayan (PnB or
people's party) in the 1987 elections – the first to be held after 14
years of Marcos dictatorship. Reminiscent of the fate suffered by the
Democratic Alliance (DA) whose six representatives elected in the 1946
elections were unseated for opposing onerous economic and military
agreements with the United States, the PnB came out badly bruised from the
polls with many of its volunteers killed and most of its candidates for
Congress and local positions victims of fraud.
Beltran
and the Party-list organizations that he represented (Bayan Muna and,
later, Anakpawis) garnered significant seats in elections for the House,
with BM topping both the 2001 and 2004 polls. House records show that the
labor leader championed the issues of the poor in privilege speeches as
well as by filing bills and resolutions on their behalf. The speeches,
bills and resolutions penned by Beltran, among others, called for
investigations of violations of the rights of workers, farm laborers,
urban poor, migrant workers, consumers, GSIS members as well as public
employees and victims of human rights violations. He was most vehement in
opposing the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Arroyo's support to the U.S.
war on terror and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Vindictive Arroyo
These initiatives inevitably antagonized government agencies, big
industrial and agricultural corporations, energy companies, and military
authorities. Consequently, the congressman earned the vindictive ire of
Mrs. Arroyo as she watched her centerpiece policies and bills sponsored
subjected to condemnation one after the other by the labor leader -
together with Party mates and other legislators - inside and outside the
halls of Congress. Co-authoring three impeachment initiatives and
denunciations against scams linking the Arroyo couple also cost Beltran's
office access to the countrywide development fund, among others.
The denial of CDF funds became part of what the progressive Party-list
bloc denounced as a systematic campaign to unseat them from the House
through demonization, election fraud, and the use of physical violence.
The campaign was integral to a national security doctrine that seeks to
neutralize the underground Left's alleged political infrastructures
resulting in a series of summary executions and forced disappearances.
Beltran was picked up and jailed by Arroyo authorities in February 2006 in
a crackdown mounted by the President's attack dogs against the progressive
bloc. After nearly two years in detention, he was set free by the Supreme
Court which dismissed the trumped-up charges. By then, however, Beltran
had physically weakened - a result of harassment, threats, and stress he
suffered under a government that considered him "a threat to national
security" and only because, as workers in the labor movement said, he
stood by his principles and refused to be cowed by Malacanang through
bribery and other pressures.
The last public performance that he did was when as a minority member of
the House energy committee he spoke against attempts by the President to
place Meralco in the hands of her business cronies in the guise of state
nationalization. Before that, he filed a bill calling for a genuine
agrarian reform program in place of CARP which for two decades he had
denounced as a hoax. Just like the P125 legislated wage increase that
Beltran and the militant labor groups had been asking for nearly 10 years,
the genuine agrarian reform measure that the progressive legislator filed
will be shot down by Congress' dominant conservative members and Arroyo
allies. Ever a leading figure in major rallies even while he was already
in Congress, Beltran delivered what turned out to be his valedictory –
wearing a white T-shirt and a red cap together with co-workers at the May
1 rally in Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila.
Tributes
In a tribute to the fallen labor leader, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said
Beltran is probably among the few members of Congress deserving of the
title "Honorable." People who visited him while in detention to lend moral
support left being inspired instead, a fellow activist leader recalls.
Down with ailment, he still took pains serving food or coffee, a former
KMU public information writer also says. "Don't deprive me of my wanting
to serve you – no matter how small it is - if that's the only way I'll be
of service," Beltran told him, quoting Golda Meir.
There are at least two lessons that can be drawn from the legacy left by
Beltran. One is that his participation in the Party-list system led to the
infusion of new politics in an elite-dominated Congress and with it a
sterling record of legislative work for social and economic reform for the
poor. A member of the legislature once noted that the entry of the
progressive Party-list bloc into Congress gave the body the meaningful
role that it never had. In session, Beltran stood tall and dignified among
many, untainted by the corruption that soiled many multimillionaire-
congressmen's seats. But the political repression that Beltran and his
colleagues endured – and continues to endure – all the more unmasks not
only the state's subversion of the Party-list program that aims to
represent the poor in policy making but also the continuing dominance of
elitist politics that denies the poor a role in governance participation.
Beltran is vindicated for devoting his life to labor militancy alongside
other marginalized classes – building power from the bowels of poverty and
injustice – from where people's governance will rise. The labor and
legislative record of Beltran proves that the breed of people's leaders is
bound to increase – as it now appears - and that elitist rule will be a
thing of the past. And that is the second lesson.
Reference:
Bobby Tuazon
Director, Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA)
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
TelFax +63-2 9299526; mobile phone: 0915-6418055
E-mail: cenpeg.info@gmail.com; info@cenpeg. org
http://www.cenpeg. org
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