Workers schedule nationally-coordinated protests on Feb. 26 to demand Ka Bel’s release

Labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) today said its unions, labor federations and allied groups will launch local and international protests on Monday, February 26 to demand the release of KMU Chairman Emeritus and Anakpawis Party List solon Crispin Beltran, who is now in hospital arrest at the Philippine Heart Center.

The protest is scheduled a day after the first anniversary of Ka Bel’s illegal arrest and detention after Malacanang issued PP 1017. Members of the academe, church and sympathetic government officials will join the broad protest activities. “Before the rally, we will visit the Beltran family and assure Ka Bel’s wife, Ka Osang and their children, that we will not abandon the fight for Ka Bel’s release.”

KMU Secretary General and Anakpawis nominee Joel Maglunsod said workers will double their efforts to assert the release of Ka Bel. “We have forwarded our appeal to the United Nations through its Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston. We are asking the UN to look into the case of Ka Bel. We are also preparing legal documents for our charges against the Arroyo government which we will file to the Permanent Peoples Tribunal during its session next month. We also followed up our complaint to the International Labor Organization. Local activities in factories and online campaigns are continuing.”

The labor leader further said that KMU’s allied organizations and individuals from the Stop the Killings International network are also set to conduct sympathy protests on Monday to pressure the Arroyo government to stop state-sponsored attacks against government critics. KMU allied groups in South Korea, Germany, Canada, Australia and even in the United States have expressed commitment to hold protests and other actions in their respective countries.

“We will ask our allies abroad to hold protests at Philippine embassies and consulate offices and declare Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as persona non grata in their countries,” Maglunsod said.

“Now that the Congress ratified the Anti-Terror Bill, more acts of human rights abuses, political persecution and attacks against government critics will take place. Malacanang even refused to make public the Melo Commission report because it had to ensure first the passage of the ATB in both Chambers of Congress. We encourage all freedom loving Filipinos, especially civil libertarians to guard against and oppose Arroyo’s Hitler-like leadership features.”

Among their members and in the grassroots level, KMU is exposing the government’s militarization program disguised as counter-insurgency plan called Oplan Bantay Laya II which focuses on military basing in barangays in urban areas. “ATB will be used to reinforce and legalize militarization programs and machineries that are already in place to further suppress peoples’ democratic rights.