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The lawmakers’ tribute to Beltran was initiated by his peers in Congress, led by left-leaning party list groups Bayan Muna, his own party Anakpawis and the Gabriela Women’s Party. Joining the night of tribute were key and influential political figures in Manila led by former President Joseph Estrada, Senate President Manuel Villar, Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Loren Legarda, Maria Consuelo Madrigal, Jinggoy Estrada and Alan Peter Cayetano.
At the Lower House, those spotted during last week’s congressional tribute were House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora, Rep. Eduardo Zialcita and Beltran’s other colleague lawmakers in Congress.
Pro- and anti-administration figures, representatives of different ideological groups and Manila’s ruling elite came to his wake to pay homage to the Grand Old Man of Philippine Labor.
Thousands of Filipino workers and farmers came in crowds to give the 75-year-old former labor leader-turned-lawmaker all the respect he deserved for serving the poor and the underprivileged from the wartime Japanese occupation up to the present.
Beltran is also known and respected by advocates and defenders of workers’ rights abroad, specifically in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, as the epitome of a working-class hero and inspiration to struggling workers across the globe.
Activists and workers’ unions from around the world sent messages extolling Beltran as a working-class hero, citing all his contributions and involvement in the global fight for workers’ rights and emancipation from capital exploitation.
Messages of solidarity from foreign allies and colleagues abroad have deluged Beltran’s office at the House of Representatives.
The outpouring of political support and bestowal of accolades and tributes to Beltran stemmed from his painstaking work as a pioneer of genuine trade unionism in the Philippines, and more than half a century of unparalleled activism in defending labor rights and the people’s interests. His activism dates from the beginning of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in the mid 1940s during World War II, when the late lawmaker served as a courier for Filipino guerillas fighting the Japanese imperial army.
The Center of People Empowerment in Governance, or CenPEG, a Manila-based advocacy group, posted a tribute to Beltran on their Web site. CenPEG said his life had been etched by struggles as a young guerilla during the Japanese invasion of Manila, as a farm worker, office sweeper, gasoline attendant, messenger, bus driver and later, as a cab driver to support his education.
In the dark years of martial law, Beltran was incarcerated by the regime of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos for organizing workers against exploitative capitalists and Marcos’ reign of terror. The activist lawmaker managed to escape his guards on one occasion and went to the countryside to organize farm workers and peasants in Central Luzon, paving the way for the formations of farmer groups and alliances in the region.
CenPEG writes: “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.”
In 1987, Beltran’s baptism of fire in the electoral process came when he joined the progressive Partido ng Bayan as one of its senatorial candidates. The party was formed to introduce the politics of the masses and the oppressed as an alternative to the politics and rule of the elite. As expected, the progressive political party was brutally suppressed by the militarist regime of former President Corazon Aquino.
Beltran survived the brutal campaign of the Aquino regime and the military and continued his work, providing leadership to many groups such as Kilusang Mayo Uno, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the International League of People’s Struggle.
In 2001 Beltran, the poorest lawmaker of all time with a net worth of 50,000 pesos, was elected party list congressman under Bayan Muna, and was re-elected representative for a second and third time in 2004 and 2007 under the banner of the Anakpawis party list.
From 2002-2005, he was judged Most Consistent Outstanding Congressman for his exemplary work in Congress. In 2006, he was elevated to the Congressional Hall of Fame by the Congress Magazine for taking up the cause of the poor as a party list lawmaker.
Three of Beltran’s pro-poor bills – one calling for a daily wage increase for private workers, one for a monthly pay hike for state workers and an agrarian reform bill that sought to distribute all agricultural lands for free to landless farmers – were considered landmark pieces of legislation.
CenPEG ended its special article on Beltran with a political statement asserting that the late lawmaker had been vindicated for devoting his life to labor militancy, alongside the marginalized classes, building power from poverty and injustice. The labor and legislative record of Beltran proves that the breed of people’s leaders is bound to increase, and elitist rule will be a thing of the past.
Beltran’s body will be interred this week in a memorial lot donated by friends and allies in the labor and people’s movement. It will be a farewell to the world’s modern-day working-class hero and a new beginning for those who will continue Beltran’s legacy to the working class in the Philippines and the world.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His Web site is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz)
