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May 22, 2008
To KMU officers and members, friends and family of Crispin Beltran, whom
we loved as "Ka Bel"!
I feel like a brother has died--so great is my personal shock at this sad
news and my sense of loss! Ka Bel was a kaibigan, a kasama, a great KMU
leader, and a man of the people. I had the privilege also of meeting his
wife Rosario and interacting with his daughter Ofelia and her husband in
KMU ISA events and exposures. I send them and his entire family my
condolences and the condolences of the members of the Philippine Workers
Support Committee of the U.S.
I recall several episodes of Ka Bel's life in which I was privileged to
know the man. I remember those times when he marched with KMU as a leader
of the May 1 demonstrations in Manila and spoke so movingly at the huge
rallies on May Day. Ka Bel was jailed several times and once did his famed
self-escape from his home when he was enroute from one jail to another. He
had a period in the countryside which lasted for months, and he came back
to Manila with a finer, more muscular physique and very much healthier. I
saw him again shortly after his return. Later the authorities would again
come after him and accuse him, and seek to imprison him--but again, in
just recent months, he confounded and best them.
Ka Bel had such a smile, a wondrous humility, and a great sense of humor
and could tell stories with the best of people. He had an even stronger
sense of justice--and so much courage! He will be so greatly missed--by
his family, by his co-workers, by KMU members, by Anakpawis party
colleagues, by mga kasama at kaibigan, organizers and educators, by
students, peasants, and
urban poor, by men, women, and youth, by people in the Philippines and
around the world-- and his death will be mourned!
But his life will be an occasion of renewed commitment and organizing--in
his example, in his honor, for the causes that he held dear. We join with
so many thousands there in the Philippines and around the globe in
saluting this man!
Our solidarity always,
John Witeck, coordinator
Philippine Workers Support Committee
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