News Release January 7, 2007

 

   Detained lawmaker and veteran labor leader turns 74
                         

The Free Ka Bel Movement, Anakpawis Party-list and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today held a 'birthday picket' in honor of Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran in front of the Philippine Heart Center where Beltran remains under incarceration after almost 11 months on the charges of rebellion and sedition. Beltran celebrates his 74th birthday today, and 50 of these 74 years he spent being a respected labor leader and beginning 2001, a progressive people's lawmaker.

 

FKBM, Anakpawis and KMU members and leaders and other supporters  held their 'birthday picket' in front of the PHC because they were not allowed inside the building. They came bearing balloons, birthday cards, and a cake decorated with a sign for a P125 across-the-board nationwide wage increase. Beltran is one of the main authors of the legislated wage hike bill the House of Representatives passed last December prior to the Christmas break. A similar bill is being deliberated upon in the senate under the Sen. Jinggoy Estrada's Committee on Labor.

 

"We are most grateful to Ka Bel for all that he has done to serve and protect the interest of workers and the rest of the working people," they said. "He is a true servant of the poor and exploited. He should be released immediately."

 

FKBM spokesperson Dennis Maga said that it was an outrage that a convicted rapist such as US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith has been essentially freed from jail while Rep. Beltran, a renowned labor leader, internationalist, and patriotic congressman, remains incarcerated.

 

"Where is the justice in this? Ka Bel has been incarcerated for almost 11 months, and it's appalling that he has had to celebrated the holidays in detention and under the close watch of government security men. He is now 74 and the greater part of his past year he spent under arrest. He should be released immediately. We won't have him spend another year of his life under detention. The charges against him are all false and fabricated," he said.

 

For her part, Beltran's chief of staff Ina Alleco Silverio said that Ka Bel's health remains under doubt.

 

"The last 11 months are beginning to take its toll on Ka Bel. It's been 11 months, and the knowledge that he is innocent and that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration continues to hold him out of pique and under false accusations is hurting his health," she said.

 

Silverio said that there were reports that it was justice secretary Raul Gonzalez who was most adamant about keeping Rep. Beltran under detention. She said that knowing Gonzalez' penchant for vindictiveness and personal attacks while veering away from the legitimate issues, Gonzalez is making sure that none of the Makati courts handling Rep. Beltran's case will issue decisions that will favor the latter's case.

 

"The Department of Justice and Malacanang itself should admit that they really have nothing on Ka Bel and that the charges against him – like all the charges against the Batasan 5 and other leaders of progressive and militant people's organizations and party-lists - are based on false and fictitious testimonies and information," she concluded.#