HONG KONG -- Some 800 miles from Bicol, where his remains lay, labor leader Crispin Beltran’s death struck Filipino migrants and others here like a personal tragedy.

On Sunday the Filipinos used their day-off to pay tribute to someone they counted as one of their own -- a family man, fighter, peasant, an old but untiring voice in the halls of the powerful.

Some 200 mourners, many of them bearing treasured memories of “Ka Bel,” assembled in front of Alexandra House on Chater Road here at 5 p.m. -- and, oblivious to the stares of other migrants and fancy shopkeepers, their tears fell.

“Sabi nila walang kabuluhan ang pagkamatay ni Ka Bel dahil nahulog siya habang nagaayos ng bubong pero sa kanyang pagkamatay, pinakita niya ang diperensya ng mga tunay na naglilingkod sa bayan. Para sa isang congressman na kayang kumita ng P65 milyon isang taon sa CDF, namatay si Ka Bel na nakatira sa isang P50,000 na bahay na inutang niya pa sa GSIS,” said Eman Villanueva, secretary general of United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL), during the two-hour tribute.

(They say Ka Bel’s death had no meaning because he fell off a roof but with his death he showed what it is like to serve the nation. For a congressman who could have made P65 million a year from his CDF, Ka Bel died in a house worth P50,000 that he borrowed from the GSIS.)

“Nabuhay siyang maralita, namatay siyang maralita (He lived a poor man, he died a poor man),” Villanueva added.

Beltran, 75, died on May 20 of severe head injuries suffered in a fall from the roof of his house. He was repairing a leak.

A union leader and Kilusang Mayo Uno (May One Movement, KMU) official since 1955, Beltran was a three-term congressman alternating as party-list representative of the militant Bayan Muna and Anakpawis. He was the Anakpawis representative at the time of his death.

“It’s very rare that we come together to shed tears for a politician, but Ka Bel was special. He could relate to the people because their life was his life,” said Bruce Van Voorhis, spokesperson of the Asian Human Rights Commission.

But between the tears there was laughter over the funny stories Beltran shared with migrant leaders during his visits to Hong Kong.

Villanueva recalled how Beltran, on a trip to Europe, bought potholders to keep warm, thinking they were winter gloves.

On the same trip, Beltran bought a winter coat only to be stared at by the others at the convention. He later learned the cheap coat was the uniform of train workers.

Leung Kwok-hung, a member of Hong Kong’s legislative council, recalled how he sat next to Beltran during their efforts to free the Korean activists who were arrested during the World Trade Organization Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005.

When he learned that Beltran himself had been arrested by Philippine police during the state of national emergency declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in February 2006, he put up a “Free Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran” poster in his office until Beltran was released last year.

“I think his health deteriorated after his arrest. He was an old man and he suffered from the hassle of the police. For me, that’s murder to some extent,” Leung said.

He sang Internationale in Mandarin to pay “homage to Mr. Ka Bel.”

“Tatay, nasaan ka man ngayon, makakaasa ka na ipagpapatuloy naming ang iyong sinimulan (Father, wherever you are, you can be sure we will continue what you started),” Josie Pingkian of the Cordillera Alliance said.