The Balangiga bells are more than just bells

It is just as well that Philippine President Rodrigo did not ask for the return of the Balangiga bells when he met with US President Donald Trump. The return of the bells has been promised to other Philippine presidents before but up to now it has remained a promise.

It is the Americans who should be put to shame for making promises they do not fulfill. Once again the new US Ambassador Sung Kim has promised it will be returned. It will forever be a reminder of America’s ignorance when what they called Filipinos “savage tribesmen” when they fought for their independence by sheer ingenuity and nerve.

To me, the bells signify how the US regards the Philippines, once a mere colony and now a neo-colony. This exceptional story of the Balangiga bells will remain a fact of history whether it is returned or not.

It is not the bells that truly matter but the story behind Balangiga that will forever matter.

“On Sunday morning, Sept. 28, 1901, some 500 Filipino rebels who had slowly gathered inside the church, some dressed in women’s clothing, waited for the signal to attack. Their bolos were covered in carts and when asked what they were carrying, they said bodies of children who died of cholera, the sentries scampered away.

While the US troopers were having breakfast, the Filipino chief of police grabbed the American sentry’s rifle and fired. Up in the belfry were Filipinos assigned to signal the insurgents’ assault on the garrison.

As the bells rang, the church doors burst open, with screaming rebels brandishing bolos and other improvised weapons such as picks and shovels. It was combat at close quarters; bolos against Krag rifles. The only advantage held by the rebels was the element of surprise. It was brilliant guerrilla warfare in the heart of town.” 

Naturally, outsmarted and defeated by ‘savages,’ the superior American colonizers fought back. First on the scene was  Company “G,” also of the Ninth Infantry, stationed at Basey. The force entered Balangiga, firing away with Gatling machine guns and light cannon. Twenty natives captured at the edge of the town were brought to the plaza and executed. All houses were torched to the ground.

The brigade was headed by Brig. Gen. Jacob Smith. who commanded “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. In his handwriting were the words “The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness.” These words would be repeated as a refrain of American perfidy.

Balangiga was a historic siege with the bells to forever mark the US military’s worst single defeat in the Philippines. In the Balangiga Massacre, locals outsmarted and killed 48 out of 74 US troops. That is the story.

More than 3,000 online petitioners have urged the US in 2014 to return the Balangiga bells, when then US President Barack Obama visited the Philippines that year.

Duterte asked the US, during his State of the Nation Address to return the bells in an appropriate forum.

“They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage,” he said.

Once again, for the nth time the US vowed to resolve the Balangiga bells issue, but without saying when. Today’s promise is in Trump’s time. Think of how many years had gone by.

But Filipinos led by Duterte were polite hosts of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. Balangiga had already made its point – the bells will forever remind the world of Filipino bravery.

Meanwhile in the “real” world, the charade goes on. The Philippine House of Representatives has once again filed a resolution for the return of the Balangiga bells with the United States Congress. Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone handed a copy of Resolution 1337, which was approved on Sept. 26 to Jonathan W. Burks, Chief of Staff of Speaker Ryan at the Speaker’s Balcony in Washington D.C.

Two Balangiga bells are being kept in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA and a third one in South Korea where Company G of the US army had lagged it along with them.

HR 1337 seeks House of Representatives’ support for President Rodrigo Duterte to ask the US government to return the Balangiga bells that were taken as “trophies of war” by the American military troops in 1901.

“Return the Balangiga Bells. It’s ours. It’s part of our heritage,” the resolution said. It was authored by Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez, House Majority Floor Leader Rudy Fariñas, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, Evardone and Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza.

“We are aware that the Bells of Balangiga have deep significance for a number of people, both in the United States and in the Philippines. We will continue to work with our Filipino partners to find a resolution.” Where is the commitment to that statement?

There is a book entitled “The Ordeal of Samar,” by Joseph L. Schott.  A review by Thomas Connell wrote, “troops were sent there to civilize the natives because Samar was a hotbed of rebel activity.”

“The Americans argued that the bells were part of the spoils of war, paid for with the blood of American soldiers. We, too, paid a terrible price for a war, not of our own making. Theirs was a war of conquest; ours was a fight for freedom.“

Whether or not the US returns the bells has become moot. The event is about how the Philippines was colonized and how the poor townsfolk of Balangiga fought back. The bells are the symbol of one of the bloodiest events of America’s colonialism of the Philippines.

There is a lot of action taking place in this book and one would recognize many of the players like; Presidents Mckinley, Roosevelt and Taft, Army Generals Chaffee and Smith and USMC Captains Bears and Porter and many others. The political intrigue reminds one of today’s political arena even though this story took place over one hundred years ago. The reader might also find it interesting that “waterboarding” was used by the US Army in this story.“

To many of us it is the story of how some American officers went beyond their military duty and took advantage of Filipinos in conquering our country.

It has been said that the no holds barred conquest of the Philippines became the template of America’s future colonial conquests.