In protest against Ka Bel's 'calvary', supporters line Welcome Rotonda with candles

Supporters of illegally-detained Anakpawis Congressman Crispin Beltran today will dramatize their burning vigilance for his release through a multi-sectoral candle-lighting activity, April 10, at the Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City , starting 6 PM.

The candle-lighting activity for Ka Bel's release is one among many other activities to be held as Beltran's supporters await a Makati court resolution that could possibly set Beltran free this April.

The Makati Regional Trial Court (MRTC) Branch 137, under Judge Jenny Lind Aldecoa-Delorino, is set to rule on a pending Motion to Release filed by Beltran's lawyers by the end of April. The said Motion is batting for Beltran's release, or at least the transfer of protective custody to the Hous of Representatives while confining Ka Bel to a hospital with adequate facilities.

The 73-year old Anakpawis solon is perhaps one of the country's oldest political detainees under the Arroyo regime. He was confined at the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame due to unstable blood pressures and hypertension aggravated by the circumstances of his arrest and the charges of sedition and rebellion slapped against him.

"We will continue to call for mass actions supporting Ka Bel's release and protesting the protracted and devious machinations of the Department of [In]justice to keep Ka Bel in illegal and arbitrary detention," Dennis Maga, Free Ka Bel Movement (FKBM) Spokesperson said.

"Ka Bel's calvary as a political detainee under the Arroyo regime has draged on for too long. He does not deserve to bear the cross of injustice and suffering that Pres. Arroyo, PNP Director-General Arutro Lomibao, and Sec. Raul Gonzales and Senior State Prosecutor Emanuel Velasco of the DOJ are putting on his shoulders," Maga said.