It started in a taxi for the Beltrans

(Please allow me to repost this very inspiring story of Ka Bel and Ka Osang).

By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The love affair of Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran and Rosario “Ka Osang” Soto began in the unlikeliest place—a taxicab.

It was Nov. 10, 1956. The then 15-year-old Osang had run away from home in Tondo after a spat with her grandmother over cutting classes and, in front of Quiapo Church in Manila, got into the cab driven by Beltran.

Distraught, she told Beltran to just drive on. When they reached Monumento in Caloocan, he stopped the cab and demanded to know exactly where she was going.

So she told him what happened.

“He lectured me. He told me I was so young and yet had the audacity to run away from home. He said, ‘You were spanked by your mother, and you ran away,’” Ka Osang, now 68, recalled.

Beltran, then 26, offered to drive her home. But she protested and tried to get off.
Seeing that night had fallen, he stopped her and decided to take her to his boarding house in San Juan.

3 days in his room

The story of how the long romance began is told in a profile of Beltran posted on the website of the militant labor alliance Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

Osang stayed in Beltran’s room for three days, sleeping separately from him. She was alone most of the time because he was a cabbie by day and a student by night, attending classes at the University of the Philippines’ Asian Labor Education Center.

In time her furious father showed up at the boarding house, beat up Beltran in front of her, and hauled him off to the San Juan municipal jail.

Eventually, they had to get married, lest the young woman end up disgraced.

“There was no love then. I was totally against it. I didn’t like him. But he, on the other hand, was open-minded. He said that love was something we could both learn,” Ka Osang said in an interview with KMU.

And it didn’t take long for her to “love” Beltran, who, she said, was a “good provider” and a gentle husband.

The couple had 10 (not 11, as earlier reported) children.

Jealousy

The young wife also learned to admire her husband for organizing unions in the slums of Metro Manila and elsewhere—an advocacy that often took him away from his family.

In his early 20s, Beltran was a full-fledged labor leader. He was president of the Yellow Taxi Drivers’ Union and the Amalgamated Taxi Drivers Federation from 1955 to 1963, according to KMU.

He went on to serve as vice administrator of the Confederation of Labor Unions of the Philippines and vice president of the Philippine Alliance of Nationalist Organizations from 1963 to 1972.

“At first I was jealous [of the movement]. I would expect him to come home every night. But since he organized workers in slums, the urban poor, and conducted seminars on workers’ rights, there were times he didn’t come home,” Ka Osang told the Inquirer on the phone.

“Now I see how the seed he planted has flowered,” she said.

Tough test

Through the years, she gave the man who had come to be known as Ka Bel her full support.

The tough test came in August 1982 when the minions of the Marcos dictatorship cracked down on Beltran and other labor leaders.

“We already had 10 children when he was arrested. We had no money, and my children lived on my small earnings from selling rubber slippers and fish in the market,” Ka Osang told KMU.

Beltran was then KMU secretary general, and he and his family lived in a slum community in Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City.

In the two years that her husband was detained at Camp Crame in Quezon City, Ka Osang made up for his absence, delivering speeches at rallies in his behalf and, eventually, doing volunteer work at the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, according to KMU.

And together with the wives, daughters and relatives of political detainees, she sought their release. But Ferdinand Marcos did not budge.

Daring escape

When KMU president Felixberto Olalia died of pneumonia in his detention cell in 1984, Ka Osang worried about her husband who was then afflicted with a kidney ailment.

She visited him, armed with an escape plan.

Beltran was allowed a brief leave to attend a nephew’s birthday celebration—naturally, with military escorts. According to their escape plan, he went to the men’s room supposedly to relieve himself, and managed to flee through a hole in the wall.

For the daring escape of her husband—considered an enemy of the state—Ka Osang endured blows, punches and kicks from his escorts.

Beltran went into hiding in Central Luzon, and was given shelter by insurgents.

The couple were reunited after Marcos was ousted in 1986 and President Corazon Aquino ordered the release of all political prisoners.

Beltran continued his advocacy in mainstream society. He joined the party-list elections as a second nominee of Bayan Muna in 2001 and won a seat in the House of Representatives.

He won a second term in 2004 and a third term in 2007 as Anakpawis representative.

Members of his family thought that his election as lawmaker would improve their lot. But they were proved wrong.

“He was the type who gave away to others anything in excess of his pay. That was what he imparted to his children,” Ka Osang said.

Sedition, rebellion

An even tougher test for the family came in February 2006, when Beltran was arrested on the strength of a warrant for a 1985 sedition case.

When this did not hold, the police still detained him at the Philippine Heart Center for one-and-a-half years for a rebellion case. (The couple marked their 50th anniversary with a Mass at the hospital.)

The Supreme Court dismissed the case against Beltran and five other party-list lawmakers in June 2007. He was freed the following month.

Early on May 20, Ka Osang saw her husband repairing the roof of their home in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

“I was going out to pay our electricity bill, and saw him fixing our roof. I told him to come down and eat first, because he might get dizzy and fall. He just laughed,” she said.

As it happened, Beltran fell and sustained grave head injuries.

Gratitude

After he breathed his last at the Far Eastern University hospital in Fairview, Quezon City, Ka Osang embraced him and thanked him.

“I wanted to show him I was thankful. He might think that we never took to heart everything that he did for us. Despite our poverty, all of our children went to college,” she said.

Sona Unleashed

The opening of the 15^th Congress was characterized by flashy and grandiose preparations by the staff of the House of Representatives. The HOR was said to have allotted P200 million pesos for the renovation of the Congress alone. Even representatives prepared for this event as if they will be attending an awards night – female representatives were clad in their usual expensive gowns, males wore barongs and tuxedos that cost thousands of pesos. All these were sheer contrast to the glaring reality of crises confronting the country. In the midst of the unabated prices of oil, skyrocketing price of rice, the people’s demand for increase in salaries and wages, and the continued discontent of the people, what is SONA really for?

Days before SONA, the broad coalition of anti-GMA forces promised to counter GMA’s SONA by holding their own “People’s SONA”, a congregation of leftist groups— workers, peasants, government workers, health professionals, youth and students, church groups, and civil society groups. This event was meant to counter the lies and flowery speech of the President. A twenty meter effigy patterned after the capsized MV Princess of the Stars was used to illustrate the sinking popularity of GMA.

On that day, protesters were the earliest to greet the day with the different sectors of the society expecting a plenty of lies that will once again be spoken by this anti-people President.

It was very important to listen to what Gloria would say as a handful of very serious problems confront the country. Unemployment rate is at its highest in the history of the Philippines, which was recorded at 11.9%. Rice is fast becoming a priced commodity. From last year’s P25/kilo of rice, it soared to P39/kilo. Prices of oil continue to increase. It has increased 19 times already despite the .50 cents rollback before SONA and P1.50 after SONA. Some transport groups continuously demand for fare hike in the midst of incessant rise in diesel and oil, further adding to the already unbearable load being passed on to commuters. In the meantime, some transport groups legitimately demand that Value Added Tax imposed on oil be scrapped.

The President defended the imposition of VAT. Even her Cabinet members are in unison in defending the culprit of high prices of oil and basic commodities. GMA stressed that VAT is for the people. Its revenue will benefit the people. The President ordered that a P500-peso subsidy be distributed to deserving poor Filipinos. But even the Department of Social Welfare and Development issued a statement stating that the subsidy alone cannot lessen the already sorry state of the Filipinos. In fact, from the P80 billion expected revenue from oil in VAT, only 10% actually goes to the people. While it may be true that all sectors of the society are being affected by high prices, small consumers are still the most that will be affected.

To further add the burden, the President pushes for the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law that has many loop-holes in-favor of landlords. Political-killings was not even address on her speech, culprit still at large. On the other hand, the GMA-anticipated cut on the price of text turned out to be just a promo.

No amount of publicity can salvage the President’s sinking ship. If Joey Salceda, one of the President’s economic advisers, gave the President a passing score of 8 out of 10, despite his own admission that GMA failed to meet last SONA’s ten-point agenda. The basis should still be – was the President true to her promise of food in every table, more jobs for the Filipinos, better life promised by revenues collected from VAT? Remember last year’s SONA. The President painted a picture of a better life for Filipinos. Super Regions, Farm-to-market roads. All these she said, would pave the way to the Philippine’s journey to becoming a “first world country” by 2010. The real condition of the country can be determined by people’s economic condition and discontent. History will judge this regime.

Wonders of blogging

When I started writing for my blog, every news entry that comes my way makes me think of a new topic to write about. My mind starts to run mischievously whenever I come across an extraordinary happening in my daily life. To write about something that may seem ordinary to others can be made astounding and inspiring in articles that bloggers choose to talk about.

Like these people whom the government often take for granted.

The jeepney was half-full. When, a man who was about to board stopped. As if trying to tell people to make way for him, move a little so he could avail of the seat just at the entrance. Nobody responded until after he said, “I’m disabled.” I was then seated at the other side of the jeepney. Sensible enough who wouldn’t have noticed that he was afterall disabled. He actually had a hard time boarding the jeep. I assume he suffered from mild stroke as he had to literally carry half of his body into the jeepney. Then this other man beside me started to comment, “Ano ba yan!.” And out of extreme disgust, I snapped, “Disabled po kasi sya.” How some people could they be so insensitive to even feel that one disabled man who is about to board a jeepney made me think again of a case wherein would-be college students were denied entry to this most populated state university in the country. Laws that would ensure the rights of the disabled should be enacted. And the existing laws that intend to protect them should be strongly enforced.