“Hindi lang siya kaibigan, di
lang siya kapatid. Di lang kasintahan, o kaisang-dibdib. Di lang siya asawa, o inang uliran.
Siya’y aking kasama, sa mapagpalayang kilusan.”
-kasama mula kay Gary Granada
For the last two decades, the name Crispin B. Beltran has been associated with pickets,
demonstrations, strikes, and generally everything connected to the militant labor
movement. Not surprising with him being the chairman of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).
Since August of 2001, however, he has become known as something else – a member of
one of the biggest, most influential bastions of conservatism in the country, the House of
Representatives. From 2001-2003, he was one of three Bayan Muna solons. From 2004 up
to present, he now stands as the chairman and representative for labor and urban poor
concerns of the Anakpawis partylist. Ka Bel breathes, lives and practices the politics of
change and nationalism with the same fervor he does as a leader of the parliament of the
streets.
But no less interesting than his politics is his personal life. His love life alone is the stuff of
movies, megged by the late Lino Brocka or Ysmael Bernal, crossed with Jose Javier Reyes.
Since 1956, Ka Bel has been married to the former Rosario Soto from Malolos, Bulacan.
There’s a joke circulating around activist circles that goes “Ka Bel is a voice who should be
heard in the Lower House, but in his own house, it’s Ka Osang whom he listens to.”
This is their love story.
Ka Osang is the product of a broken home. Her parents separated early in her childhood,
and as the youngest among the three children, she was left to an elderly relative, her
father’s aunt who lived in Gagalangin, Tondo. Ka Osang grew up wanting for nothing – she
was given new dresses and jewelry whenever she asked for them.
But in exchange, she had to be obedient to the very strict, and sometimes unreasonable
rules of her grandmother. She was entered in La Concepcion, a convent- school, and was
told never to look at members of the opposite sex. “Wala talaga akong kaalam-alam sa
mga lalaki nun. Si Papa lang at yung mga kapatid ko ang pwede kong kausapin.” (”I knew
the least thing about boys or men.The only males I was aware of were my father and my
brothers.”) Continue reading ‘The Crispin Beltran Narrative’
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