The long time of history

President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirade aganst America’s colonization of  the Philippines while in Laos did not surprise Dutertistas who have been following his statements since his election as President of the Philippines.  It was centered on adopting new relations between the Philippines and the US and the need for an independent foreign policy. For this, he had to hark back to history. He is essentially following the teaching of the French historian Fernand Braudel who taught that history is not only about events and great men. It encompasses life in all its aspects. Braudel says that it is a mistake to ignore the lives of  the comon folk. That kind of thinking suits Duterte. He is not being out of time but in time when he talks of the Balangiga bells which symbolizes America’s colonization of the Philippines. That is very present in the discussion of American interference in the way the Philippines is being run by its president Rodrigo Duterte.

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Interestingly, there was a discussion on a post I made in social media whether it might be a good opportunity to repeat the request for the nth time of the return of the Balangiga bells during Obama’s visit.

There were some who knew what the Balangiga bells were about but many others did not. Those who did not said, “these are only bells, pieces of metal that are better off in American hands than if they were to be returned and probably stolen by Filipino politicians, made into scrap metal and sold for a few pieces of silver.” But thinking Filipinos who did know what the Balangiga bells were and what they stood for said they should be returned. The Balangiga bells is an apt metaphor for US-Philippine special relations.

“On Sept. 28, 1901, Filipino freedom fighters from the village of Balangiga ambushed Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment, while they were at breakfast, killing an estimated 48 and wounding 22 of the 78 men of the unit, with only four escaping unhurt. The villagers captured about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. An estimated 20 to 25 of the villagers had died in the fighting, with a similar number of wounded.”

In reprisal, General Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a “howling wilderness” and that any Filipino male above ten years of age capable of bearing arms be shot. “Kill, kill, kill,” he was quoted as saying, “I want no survivors.” From the burned-out Catholic town church, the Americans looted three bells that they took back to the United States as war booty.

After that brilliant triumph of poorly-armed Filipino villagers of Balangiga, the town was recaptured on September 29, 1901 by 55 men of Company G, 9th US Infantry.

The Cheyenne Daily Leader newspaper reported that a cannon had been mounted on the parade ground near the flagpole along with other relics from the Philippines... to include the famous bells which gave the signal for the massacre of a whole company.

From the story, the bells clearly belong to the poorly-armed villagers of Balangiga for their ingenuity in using them against a superior enemy – the well-armed American invaders.

Now examine the significance of those bells in relation to President Duterte’s point when he showed the pictures of the massacre of Mindanaoans by American soldiers at the Laos forum talking about human rights. The ASEAN leaders looked in stunned silence. President Obama could not respond. Duterte had touched a sensitive nerve. Obama must have thought about it on his way home. In a September 7 report by the New York Times, Obama was quoted as saying that American power had not always been a force for good and that it was time for the US to reexamine itself and its past. I imagine he got Duterte’s point.

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It might be good to remind Barack Obama, the first Afro-American president of the US, that we had black soldiers who joined our war of independence.

David Fagen was the most celebrated of the handful of Afro-American soldiers who defected to the Filipino revolutionary army led by Emilio Aguinaldo during the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902.

On Nov. 17, 1899, Fagen defected to the Filipino army. Winning the trust of the Filipinos, he took refuge in the guerilla-controlled areas around Mount Arayat in Pampanga province. Fagen served enthusiastically for the next two years the Filipino cause. His bravery and audacity were much praised by his Filipino comrades. Fagen was promoted from first lieutenant to captain by Gen. Jose Alejandrino on Sept. 6, 1900. Such was his popularity that Filipino soldiers often referred to him as “General Fagen.” His exploits earned him front-page coverage in The New York Times which described him as a “cunning and highly-skilled guerilla officer who harassed and evaded large conventional American units.”

Clashing at least eight times with American troops from Aug. 30, 1900 to Jan. 17, 1901, American officers were frustrated by their inability to capture Fagen whose exploits by now had begun to take on legendary proportions among Filipinos and in the American press. Fagen’s success also triggered the fear of black defections, of which there were actually only twenty.

When Gen. Jose Alejandrino was given safe passage by Gen. Arthur MacArthur (the father of the famous Gen. Douglas MacArthur) to Manila to negotiate the exchange of prisoners, MacArthur wanted Alejandrino to return Fagen to them to be tried as a traitor and deserter. Alejandrino refused. MacArthur then threatened to revoke Alejandrino’s safe passage. Alejandrino told MacArthur if he did that, he could not guarantee the safety of American prisoners held by the insurgents. MacArthur backed down.

By 1901, American forces captured key Filipino leaders including Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo himself. The Filipinos tried to secure amnesty for Fagen, but the Americans refused, insisting that he would be court-martialed and executed when captured.

On Dec. 5, 1901, Anastacio Bartolome, a Tagalog bounty hunter, delivered to American authorities the severed head of a “negro” he claimed to be Fagen. While traveling with his hunting party, Bartolome reported that he had spied upon Fagen and his wife accompanied by a group of indigenous people called Aetas bathing in a river. Recognizing him from the wanted posters, the hunters attacked the group and allegedly killed and beheaded Fagen, then buried his body near the river.

To this day, it remains unclear what exactly became of David Fagen. Some said he remained to live somewhere in the Sierra Madre mountains. His life after the war continued to be a mystery as was his existence before it. But his actions, largely forgotten in the United States, continue to be remembered in the Philippines as that of an Afro-American who had cast his lot with the Filipino revolutionaries to fight American imperial designs.