The return of the bells of Balangiga

Over the weekend, because of too many stories and talk about the incident involving Senior Police Officer 1 Roderick Balili coming from no less than Police Regional Office director Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas that Balili was stable and good and alive, we thought that this was the truth about the policeman. Then last Sunday the report came that Balili died on August 10. So why did Sinas say that Balili was alive and not dead? So the next question is whether or not Balili was killed in an accident.

From the news reports, when Balili asked for his gun, a Glock 9mm from the driver, their vehicle hit a bump in the road and the gun went off, hitting Balili who was supposedly seated at the back. If you ask me, the driver of the police vehicle obviously wasn’t properly trained how to handle a firearm. Basic firearm training teaches you never to put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. So why was the driver holding the trigger when he handed the firearm to Balili? Secondly, who was the driver? Frankly speaking, this is the first time ever that I have heard of an accidental shooting with the police in Cebu Province.

Let me tell Sinas that many of us who belong to a shooting club know the basics of handling a firearm and that the police driver certainly cannot pass a civilian shooting club basic test when he gives a loaded firearm to another person while his finger is holding the trigger. This tells you that this story peddled by the police is just full of holes and perhaps Sinas must come up with a credible story on how Balili was killed.

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Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. last weekend gave us a story that was quite heart lifting when he revealed that the United States government agreed to return the famous Balangiga bells which was seized by US troops as war booty during the Philippine-American War. Harry Roque said that the Palace has been informed of the US defense department’s announcement that it intends to formally return the bells to the Philippines.

Nearly a hundred years ago, September 28, 1901 to be exact, the ringing of the church bells in Balangiga town, Eastern Samar, signaled the assault by Filipino guerrillas against American forces from the 9th US Infantry Regiment that led to the death of 48 US servicemen camped within the church grounds. This incident is now called the Balangiga Massacre and the biggest loss of life by US military servicemen serving in the Philippines. Mind you, many of these US servicemen served the US government during the war against the Indians.

Because of the massacre, the USS New York was sent to Samar where the US military retaliated and literally turned the Island of Samar into a “howling wilderness” where an estimated 2,500 Filipinos were killed. In that operation, the US military created concentration camps in Samar where Filipinos were moved and incarcerated. Anyone caught outside the concentration camps were either arrested or killed.

Then the troops removed three bells from the Balangiga town church and took them as war trophies. Two of the bells are now in a US military base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while one is displayed at a museum in South Korea. In 1994, the Philippines, under President Fidel Ramos, requested for the return of the bells, but this was not acted upon by the US government.

In his second State of the Nation Address last year, President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte called on the US to return the Balangiga bells, saying it was painful for Filipinos to see items that form part of their national heritage taken away from them. Last week, the US Embassy in Manila announced that the US Defense Department is willing to return the bells to the Philippines. The agency has informed the US Congress of its decision but no specific date has been set for the return of the bells.

Last February, some American lawmakers expressed their opposition to the return of the bells to the Philippines, citing the alleged human rights violations under the administration of President Duterte. In my book, the return of the Bells of Balangiga should have no conditions from the US.

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