Downer asked to speak out on jailed Filipino parliamentarian

Australian trade unionists today called on Philippines consulates and the Embassy in Canberra to demand the immediate release of Crispin Beltran, an elected workers representative to the Philippines House of Representatives. He has been in jail or detained in the Philippines Heart Center for one year today.

"We are taking our protest at 4pm today to the Philippines Consulate in Sydney, to convey our strongest protest at the continued detention of Crispin Beltran on completely trumped charges of rebellion," said Peter Murphy, spokesperson for the Philippines Australia Union Link.

"Crispin Beltran is detained purely to repress and punish the widespread movement in the Philippines against the regime of President Arroyo, which stands charged with a brutal campaign of military death squads against unarmed civilian critics, and for stealing the 2004 presidential elections.

"Crispin Beltran was voted the most popular member of Congress three years in a row, and is a leader of the popular movement calling on Mrs Arroyo to resign, but that is not a crime in any democratic society," said Mr Murphy.

"The Philippines National Police have put forward bogus evidence twice against Mr Beltran to justify their arrest of him without warrant on February 25 last year during a State of National Emergency, and failed in court. So they have fallen back on the charge of 'rebellion', which is a non-bailable 'continuing offence' under Philippines law. This really amounts to a 'thought crime' - that Mr Beltran thinks the government is illegitimate and that the people should call for the President to resign," explained Mr Murphy.

"The International Parliamentary Union, including its Australian Labor and Liberal delegates, has unanimously called twice for the release of Mr Beltran, but so far the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, has remained silent," said Mr Murphy. "Now that the UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings has exposed the massive repression by death squads under Mrs Arroyo's watch, our government must speak out or forever be seen as complicit in another murderous repression in our region, this time in the name of the war on terror," said Mr Murphy. "It should call today for the release of Mr Beltran and an end to the death squads".

Crispin Beltran began his union career in the 1950s in the Yellow Taxi Employees Union, became the leader of the Alliance of National Genuine Labor Organisations (ANGLO) in the 1970s, and the first Secretary General of the May One Labor Movement (KMU) in 1980. Along with over 100 other KMU leaders he was arrested and jailed under the Marcos dictatorship in 1982, but managed to escape in 1984 during a release for a family wedding. He went underground in Central Luzon until the overthrow of the dictator in February 1986, and then became the Chairperson of KMU until his election to the Congress in May 2001. He remains Emeritus Chairperson of the union center. He is now aged 74 and suffers high blood pressure and diabetes and had a mild stroke in 2002 from which he recovered.