Crispin Beltran

Crispin Beltran (2007)

Crispin Bertiz Beltran (also known as Ka Bel ; born January 7, 1933 in Bacacay , Albay , † May 20, 2008 in Manila ) was a left-wing Philippine politician , labor leader and harsh critic of the Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who had been in power since 2001 . His controversial detention in 2006 and the accompanying charges of incitement to riot and rebellion attracted international attention.

As chairman of the labor movement and the national trade union federation Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and a long-time member of the House of Representatives , Beltran is a central figure in recent Filipino history.

Life

Education and personal life

Beltran attended Bacacay Elementary School until 1949 , then he went to Albay High School , which he graduated in 1953. At first he worked as a caretaker, messenger, bus driver and later as a taxi driver. In this role he met 15-year-old Rosario 'Ka Osang' Soto in November 1956 , whom he later married and with whom he had eleven children. He also completed his studies at the University of the Philippines ( Asian Labor Education Center ).

Beltran belonged to the Independent Philippine Church ( Iglesia Filipina Independiente ).

Political commitment

During the Japanese occupation , Crispin Beltran volunteered as a courier for the Philippine guerrilla groups that organized the resistance against the Japanese occupation. Later as a politician he campaigned for respect for national sovereignty and against foreign interventions. One of the reasons for this attitude is his rejection of the Iraq war .

At the age of twenty, Beltran went on strike to protest against unjust employment. Police intervention in the strike claimed the lives of three demonstrators. Beltran became involved in the Yellow Taxi Driver's Union and the Amalgamated Taxi Drivers Federation , of which he was president from 1955 to 1963. Furthermore, Beltran served as Vice Administrator of the Confederation of Labor Union of the Philippines (CLP) and as Vice President of the Philippine Alliance of Nationalist Organizations from 1963 to 1972. In order to organize and promote the resistance against the regime of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos , the In 1980 the labor movement Kilusang Mayo Uno was founded, in which Beltran was involved. The organization's membership quintupled during the 1980s from 100,000 to 500,000.

In August 1982 Ferdinand Marcos stepped up crackdown on opposition members, which led to the arrest of Beltran at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Camp Crame in Quezon City and of numerous fellow campaigners. In November 1984 he managed to escape. The period that followed was marked by far-reaching political changes: On February 25, 1986, Marcos fled into exile in Hawaii in the face of growing unrest that also spread to the military . Corazon Aquino , who took over the presidency on the evening of Marcos' escape, demanded the release of all political prisoners. When Ka Rolando Olalia , President of Kilusang Mayo Uno , was assassinated in 1987, Beltran assumed the presidency of the organization. From 1993 to 1999, Beltran served as chairman of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN).

In 2000, Beltran took part in demonstrations against President Joseph Estrada , which included calls for his resignation. In this context, Beltran said: If parliament does not remove Estrada, the people will chase him and his decrepit government away. We will continue to demonstrate until Estrada has resigned . Estrada has been president since 1998 after his vice presidency under Fidel Ramos . On January 20, 2001, he was dismissed and replaced by the previous Vice President Arroyo.

In 2001, Beltran stood on the party list of the party Bayan Muna ( The People First ) as the second candidate for the election of the House of Representatives and received a seat there. The second term as a result of his re-election began in 2004, his third as a member of the Anak Pawis party ( Children of sweat , working / working masses ) in 2007. He was a member of the 12th, 13th and 14th Congress .

In the 12th Congress he was following, among other Member Committee: Civil, Political and Human Rights (civil, political rights and human rights ), Energy ( power ), Housing and Urban Development ( Urban Planning ), Labor and Employment (labor and employment ), People's Participation ( codetermination ), Suffrage and Electoral Reforms ( suffrage and electoral reforms) and Transportation and Communications (transport and communication ). In the 13th Congress, he led the Office of the Vice-Chairman of the Committee of Labor and Employment ( Labor and Employment ) and was also a member of the Committee of Constitutional amendments ( constitutional amendments ), Energy , Poverty Alleviation ( poverty reduction ) and People's Participation .

Beltran rejected the fight against the New People's Army , the guerrilla organization of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (German: Communist Party of the Philippines ), using military force. Instead, he called for peace talks to be held and the money saved in the case to be used for social structures.

2006 incitement to riot and rebellion charges

In the course of a coup attempt on February 24, 2006 suspected in government circles , the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency , so that the constitution of the Philippines was partially suspended. On February 25, the police took Crispin Beltran, citing an arrest warrant, which was signed by Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, because of sedition and incitement to riot among left-wing deputies in custody . He was also suspected of having been involved in planning an overthrow by the military. As a result there were street protests, some of which were violently suppressed by the police. Two members of the Federation of National True Trade Union Organizations (ANGLO-KMU) who tried to gain access to Beltran were arrested. In order to counter the protests, a meeting ban was then issued.

In addition, Beltran was burdened with statements that he is said to have made at the People's Power event , during which calls for the resignation of the president and for expropriations were loud. Beltran countered that he had not given a speech at the event. In addition, he was fundamentally protected by parliamentary immunity . Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco justified the action with the argument that the allegations could result in a prison sentence of more than six years, so that the MP's immunity does not apply.

As a result of his arrest, international campaigns began calling for Beltran's immediate release. As part of the Free Ka Bel Movement group , local branches were formed in Southern Tagalog , Davao and Cebu as well as international branches in Hong Kong , Japan , the USA , Canada , Australia and Switzerland . Furthermore, the demand for Beltran's release found support from numerous politicians, including the Netherlands , Cambodia , Myanmar , New Zealand , Belgium , Chile , the United Kingdom , Canada, Australia, the European Parliament , Switzerland, Denmark and the Flemish Parliament . Supporters included Keith Locke, MP from New Zealand's Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand .

Columnist Amando Doronila wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 21, 2006 :

Oplan Bantay Laya clearly aims to decimate the non-military segments of the communist movement. This plan is not intended to face the NPA [ New People's Army ] in open combat on the battlefield. Rather, this plan provides for the slaughter of defenseless non-combatants. This is a despicable plan because it is targeted against civilians in order to minimize one's own losses in the military and the police. The primary goal of this strategy is to “neutralize” legal organizations. This explains why the victims for the past five years have been unarmed members of the left.

The human rights organization Amnesty International ruled in its report Philippines - Political Murders, Human Rights and the Peace Process of August 15, 2006:

The events during the state of emergency have also raised concerns about the political motivations behind presumably selected arrests and indictments, particularly against left-wing suspects. The nature of the charges and the manner in which they were brought have heightened continued fears that these arrests constituted arbitrary detentions based on any use of unfounded accusations and an erosion of suspects' right to due process and fair trial indicated. The arrest and detention of Congressman Crispin Beltran from Anakpawis highlighted these concerns.

The arrest also prompted Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's predecessors in the presidency to comment. Fidel Ramos , who held this post from 1992 to 1998, was shocked and appalled by Arroyo's measures. The president from 1986 to 1992, Corazon Aquino , also a critic of Arroyo, compared the imposition of the state of emergency with the leadership style of the former Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Beltran's arrest, held at the Philippine Heart Center due to heart problems , ended in June 2007 with an acquittal by the Philippines Supreme Court . On January 4, 2008, Beltran passed a resolution, House Resolution 299 , calling for the Civil, Political and Human Rights and Labor and Employment committees to investigate the persecution of trade unionists and labor leaders. He denounced the murder, kidnapping, surveillance, harassment and intimidation of trade unionists. He relied on a report by the International Trade Union Confederation regarding the persecution of trade unionists for 2007. This had shown that 33 of the 144 worldwide killings of trade unionists occurred in the Philippines. The report also reported over 800 cases of violence against Filipino trade unionists.

Death on May 20, 2008

Crispin Beltran died on May 20, 2008 at the age of 75 after falling approximately 4 meters from the roof of his home in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan Province , which he was trying to repair. He sustained serious injuries in the fall, to which he succumbed the same day: At 11:48 am, doctors at Far Eastern University hospital pronounced him dead. Beltran was survived by his wife Rosario, who appeared in public shortly after his death declared that the fight of the Filipino worker goes on. The struggle continues . In addition to his wife, Beltran left his eleven children, 29 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren behind.

He served as a member of the House of Representatives until his death; his place in the 14th Congress was taken by Raphael V. Mariano. He was honored by his colleagues with the title Grand Old Man of Philippine labor . The Malacañang Palace , the official residence of the Philippine President, had the spokesman Anthony Golez declare that Beltran had been one of the most respected labor leaders in the country ( We mourn the untimely demise of one of the most respected labor leaders in the country, Representative Crispin Beltran ).

The Turkish party Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti (MLKP), which is on the terror list of the Presidium for Counter Terrorism and Operation in Turkey , praised the people of Colombia and the Philippines will win! of the party's international bureau its uninterrupted struggle in the ranks of the workers and working people .

literature

• Ka Bel The Life and struggle of Crispin Beltran, Ina Alleco R. Silverio, Quezon City, Philippines , 2010

Individual evidence

1. ^ Crispin Beltran - 1933-2008 . Retrieved May 13, 2010.
2. ↑ Personal Information - BELTRAN, Crispin Bertiz . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
3. ↑ It started in a taxi for the Beltrans ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 13, 2010. 
4. ↑ Working class hero Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran leaves a living legacy ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 14, 2010. 
5. ↑ Tens of thousands of Filipinos demand Estrada's resignation - report on handelsblatt.com. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
6. ↑ Political Information - BELTRAN, Crispin Bertiz (12th Congress). Retrieved May 14, 2010.
7. ↑ Political Information - BELTRAN, Crispin Bertiz (13th Congress). Retrieved May 14, 2010.
8. ↑ GoPinoy! - News from the Philippines in German: Against the Revolutionary Tax ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 16, 2010. 
9. ↑ TINIG NG KABABAIHAN - Women's Voices (Manuscript: May 1, 2007 in Manila; PDF; 154 kB). Retrieved May 16, 2010.
10. ↑ Trade union rights in legislation, trade union rights in practice, legal violations 2006 ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 14, 2010. 
11. ↑ ^{a b} Philippines - Political Murders, Human Rights and the Peace Process ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 575 kB) from Amnesty International. Retrieved May 14, 2010. 
12. ↑ Oppositionists accused of attempted coup  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Report on stern.de . Retrieved May 14, 2010.  
13. ↑ Free Ka Bel Movement (FKBM): Ka Bel's freedom regained at last! . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
14. ↑ Helen Clark should help free Filipino MPs ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 14, 2010. 
15. ^ Death squad policy (University of Kassel). Retrieved May 14, 2010.
16. ↑ Former Philippine President is dead - spiegel.de . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
17. ↑ Police take action against opposition members (tagesschau.de archive) - tagesschau.de. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
18. ↑ ^{a b} Doctors declare 'Ka Bel' dead due to severe head injuries . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
19. ^ Judgment of the Supreme Court of the Philippines . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
20. ^ Sample killing of labor leaders - Beltran . Retrieved May 15, 2010.
21. ↑ 33 of 144 labor leaders killed around world in '07 from RP . Retrieved May 15, 2010.
22. ↑ ^{a b} 'Grand old man of Philippine labor' mourned . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
23. ^ Palace mourns passing of Beltran, 'vital figure' in labor . Retrieved May 14, 2010.
24. ↑ Terrorist list of the Presidium for Combating Terrorism and Operation in Turkey ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
25. ↑ The peoples of Colombia and the Philippines will win! ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved May 16, 2010. 

Web links

• Obituary for Crispin Beltran ( Kilusang Maya Uno , May 20, 2008; English)
• Book review of a biography about Crispin Beltran ( German-Philippine Friends , April 2011)