Tuloy ang laban, Ka Bel!

It was about 15 years ago at a gathering in honor of Wilma Tiamzon who was just released from prison when I first came to know Ka Bel. Prior to this meeting he was just a name on the newspaper, a face on the television and a voice on radio and in rallies. We were asked to introduce ourselves by the sectors we belonged and when it was his turn at the microphone, Ka Bel stood up, took the microphone with his left hand, put his right hand akimbo and said, “Ako po si Crispin Beltran ng NUSP.” A roar of laughter filled the house. What was, until then, a serious affair became full of banter as if someone switched on the light in a dark room. It was my turn to speak next as then CEGP deputy secretary general. I said, “Ako ho si Raymund Villanueva mula sa sektor ng mga tunay na kabataan!” Ka Bel’s laugh was the loudest.

During dinner, Ka Bel sauntered over and introduced himself to me. “Ako si Ka Bel,” he said. “Kumusta ba ang mga college editors?” This kind of question would be his staple greeting. For another three years, he would ask me this. From 1997 to 2004, it would be “Kumusta ba ang mga teachers?”

I have always been awestruck by Ka Bel. Yet I never felt ill-at-ease with him. If he had no questions to ask, he had his smile to give. He would give me firm handshakes and pats on my back. He was generous with praise for a job well done. He never forgot my name. I could wrap my arms around his shoulders and he was okay with it. He would even playfully jab at my growing gut and say, “Mag-boxing ka para lumiit yan.”

In 2006, I visited Ka Bel in his Philippine Heart Center room. I brought along my Canadian professor and my Mongolian classmate. Prof Kim Kierans was there to watch me conduct an interview for radio. She left the room with what she described as a “perfect” interview and a bag full of ripening mangoes Ka Bel insisted she bring with her. She told our class and the upturned noses of the faculty at the Ateneo about the interview. My professor just loved Ka Bel.

That’s just it with Ka Bel. He always brought out the strongest emotions whatever he did. He first lifted my morale to high heavens when he gave Lana Linaban a symbolic hammer in an activity in Malate. I felt great fury when I saw a police officer choke him with a baton at the Manila Hotel workers’ strike. Yes, I too felt the exasperation as part of many program committees when Ka Bel wouldn’t stop his speech way after his allotted time in rallies.

Sometime back, an Inquirer editorial took a swipe at Ka Bel, sardonically making fun at his penchant to refer to himself in the third person. This is the same newspaper which came out with another editorial last week about how peerless Ka Bel’s integrity was. This is the newspaper that now prints daily news stories about his legacy while Ka Bel lies in state. I think the Inquirer has become Ka Bel’s number one fan.

But the entire country has become Ka Bel’s fan. I was told about how media people covering the House of Representatives cried upon hearing of Ka Bel’s accident. I was told about how UN staff meetings in Manila paid him a minute of silence. I was told how committee hearings started with similar gestures of respect before starting business. How ashamed the people who vilified Ka Bel and his politics must feel now. How wrong they were. No one would be writing and saying such exultations over Donald Dee, Manuel Varela, the two Gonzaleses, gloria arroyo, George Bush when they die as everyone is now doing for Ka Bel.

I am way past asking what was Ka Bel thinking repairing his leaky roof himself when he has many meetings to attend to last Tuesday.  One thing is sure though--he did not have to stand on his leaky roof to prove his life's point.  By proving that integrity is possible in public service, he towered above most mortals.

Ka Bel will be laid to rest tomorrow. I should be getting a good cry over his death. But whenever I come to Ka Bel’s wake, my morale is lifted as high as when he offered the youth we were a symbolic hammer.

To the man who died with a hammer on his hand, “Tuloy ang laban, Ka Bel!”