Of love and liberty

'Took quite a while to finally retrieve this particular file, but here it is anyway: a photo of detained Anakpawis Congressman Crispin 'Ka Bel' Beltran and Rosario 'Ka Osang' Soto-Beltran during their 50th wedding anniversary rites last November 16, at the Chapel of the Philippine Heart Center (PHC).

More than a month has passed since then, but I'll always have fond memories of that day when Ka Bel and Ka Osang renewed their marriage vows in front of family, friends, and comrades. (November 16, coincidentally, is also the anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre n Tarlac.)

It was a serene Sunday afternoon, marked by cold and intermittent rainshowers, alternating between grey and sunny skies. The day's absolutely mixed-up weather only seemed to reflect my own ambivalence towards the event: while I was happy for Ka Bel and Ka Osang, I felt sad knowing that with his experiences, stature, and age, Ka Bel doesn't deserve to be detained and shorn of his rights in the way that the Arroyo administration's morally-bankrupt conjugal circus has been doing for MORE THAN NINE MONTHS already.

What happened that day is already stale news: The ceremony was held in the hospital's 5th floor chapel because the courts inexplicably refused to issue a permit for any larger venue outside the PHC. Ka Bel was escorted by his PNP guards to the cramped chapel, which was packed tight with well-wishers, guests, and grandchildren of all ages and sizes. The media and even personal videographers were barred from covering the event. A festive reception was held at the nearby Parks and Wildlife, but Ka Bel was forced to stay put in the hospital by his police captors.

As traditional ceremonies go, this event had its fair share of sponsors, pictorials, and good food. But what I like to remember about that day, instead, were the last few minutes prior to the entire event: how Ka Bel's eyes crinkled at the edges while he grinned like a teenager ready to take on the world. How he seemed so much more positively sprightly and lithe that day, greeting visitors and family with more bounce in his step after donning a warm yellow undershirt and barong. How he would gamely pose for the cameras that a few managed to sneak in past his guards, how happy he seemed to be upon seeing so much comrades at this single moment.

I also swear Ka Osang looked a decade younger that day, dressed in a yellow embroidered Maria Clara dress and wearing dainty beaded slippers. Back in Ka Bel's hospital room, Ka Osang didn't want to sit down, saying that she wasn't used to wearing such dresses and didn't want to wrinkle the fabric. I recalled her painstaking visits to Camp Crame last April, where Ka Osang trudged to the PNP hospital clad in shorts, rubber shoes, headband, and a red t-shirt calling for Ka Bel's freedom, and her stories of how she would tirelessly wake up at dawn to sell foodstuffs then walk all the way from Fairview to Camp Crame back when Ka Bel was jailed during Martial Law. Two decades older and a political detainee's wife twice over, Ka Osang now often suffers from aching joints and finds it physically difficult to be as active as she was before. But this did not douse her resolve to continue fighting for Ka Bel's freedom once more.

In the end, I was happy because this short ceremony was more than a public affirmation of a couple's love and commitment to one another for five long decades: it was also an affirmation of conviction and hope in the face of political persecution, a lesson imparted by these two people who have been through hell and back yet have not given up on the struggle. Seeing Ka Bel and Ka Osang at this moment, I knew in my heart that the Arroyo administration failed, miserably and absolutely, in its attempt to break Ka Bel's spirit.