Press Release
February 26, 2007

Recto calls for the release of ailing
Crispin Beltran from military custody

Sen. Ralph Recto on Monday urged government authorities to immediately release detained labor leader and Anakpawis Party List Representative Crispin Beltran for humanitarian reason saying that an ailing old man does not belong in jail but in the warm embrace of his family. Recto appealed for compassion to the militant labor leader, whose more than one year imprisonment has caused him to fall ill. Beltran is suffering from heart ailment, according to doctors who examined him. Its time to send him home to the loving embrace of his wife and the warm company of his apos, Recto said. According to Recto, Beltran, 74, who has been confined and under tight security at the Philippine Heart Center is heartbreaking. Pauwiin na po natin ang lolong ito, Recto said. Recto said Beltrans continued detention is just giving critics of the administration an issue they can hit the government with. An old man imprisoned in a hospital ward is not exactly the picture of compassion, he said. The ailing militant labor leader was arrested by police authorities in February 24, 2006 and since then has been detained and virtually been an ex-communicado political detainee. Beltrans arrest came as the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detective Management Group (PNP-CIDG) tagged Beltran along with other militant leaders as a conspirator in a plot to oust the government.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a case of rebellion in May last year.

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