Louie Beltran
| Ka Louie Beltran | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Luis Diaz Beltran April 4, 1936 Manila, Philippines |
| Died | September 6, 1994 (aged 58) Manila, Philippines |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Occupation | Journalist, columnist |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Antonia Salcedo Beltran |
Luis "Ka Louie" Diaz Beltran (April 4, 1936 – September 6, 1994) was a Philippine broadcast journalist and newspaper columnist.
Born Luis Diaz-Beltran on April 4, 1936 in Manila, he was known for his outspokenness. During martial law, when he was on the staff of the Evening News, he was one of the many journalists arrested and detained at Camp Crame. After three months of imprisonment, being bankrupt, he bred fighting cocks, calling the champion breed he developed Newshawk. He commented on current issues on radio and hosted "Straight from the Shoulder," a television show which analyzed current events. He was the original host of the television show Brigada Siete. He was the first editor-in-chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He also worked on other newspapers, including the Philippine Star.
After President Ferdinand E. Marcos was overthrown by the EDSA Revolution, Beltran became the editor-in-chief of a new newspaper, the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The pre-martial law show he hosted, Straight from the Shoulder, was revived on GMA 7. He moved from newspaper to newspaper, ending up as a columnist for the STAR. It was then that he became notorious for mentioning in a column about the 1987 coup attempt that then President Corazon Aquino had been hiding under the bed during the coup. For this statement he was sued by the President for libel. Aquino went so far as to show journalists that she could not fit under her bed. Beltran, who openly expressed his belief that the President was lacking in competence, countered that his words were not meant to be taken literally, but Aquino still pursued the case against him and the STAR’s editor-in-chief Max Soliven. On 22 October 1992, the court ruled in Aquino’s favor, sentencing the columnist and his editor to 2 years of imprisonment and ordering them to pay 2 million pesos in moral damages.
His son, Cito Beltran, is also a TV personality and a columnist.
The case was thrown out of court by the Court of Appeals nearly 3 years after Beltran died of a heart attack on September 6, 1994. He was 58.
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