Thank you for giving back our history

Returning the Balangiga bells is not something to be grateful for. The Americans kept these for more than a hundred years as “war booty,“ but they do not tell the story of how they got the bells.

The celebration should not be in America but in the Philippines because returning the Balangiga bells gives back our history – that we are a brave people and why we will not tolerate imperialism.

Balangiga is just a little town in one of the poorest provinces of the Philippines, but it is to them that we sing our national anthem – pag may mang-aapi ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.

The story of Balangiga Massacre ought to be remembered and highlighted when it is returned and a Filipino should write it as the Noli Me Tangere of the American period. Neither should it be returned to the San Lorenzo de Martir Parish Church in Balangiga, Eastern Samar. It tells the story of a patriotic act against imperialism that should now belong to the nation.

Balangiga is the home of Filipino townsfolk. It belongs to them not to the soldiers from Wyoming who were offended that mere townsfolk whom they regarded as little more than savages should kill superior, well-armed American conquerors.

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. Through the years, the US has refused to return the bells and accept that they had no business being in Balangiga. Worse, the bells have been displayed in Wyoming after American troops brought these home as spoils of war.

I beg to disagree that the return should end with the return of the Balangiga bells. It should rather be the beginning of gratitude to Filipinos who did not waiver in defending the country.

As to who should get the credit for the return, it is my opinion that it is being returned because of the strong words expressed by PRRD in his second State of the Nation Address. The bells were taken at the cost of bloodshed of thousands of Filipinos.

He declined to comment further until the bells are delivered. “It ain’t here until it’s here.”

It is the time to tell the story and the reasons for the Balangiga massacre.

The Balangiga Bells were used in 1901 when Filipinos outsmarted and killed 48 out of 74 US troops – the US military’s worst single defeat in the Philippines.

In retaliation, American forces killed 2,500 to 10,000 Filipinos on the order of General Jacob H. Smith to turn Balangiga into a “howling wilderness.”

The Balangiga Massacre was a dark time in history that angers President Rodrigo Duterte, who often brings it up in his anti-US tirades.

“Kung hindi nila isauli ‘yang Balangiga Bells, wala tayong pag-usapan (If they don’t return the Balangiga Bells, there’s nothing we can talk about).”

Years after the event, the American survivors of the battle of Balangiga would recall the church bells ringing. The soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment said the bells tolled during a surprise attack by rebels in the port town of Balangiga in the Philippines.

To commemorate their lost men – or perhaps to avenge them – American troops brought the three bells of Balangiga home with them.

According to one report the soldiers of the 9th Infantry, Company C, arrived at Balangiga on Aug. 11, 1901. At first, they were friendly with the locals. Officers played chess with town leaders, and soldiers left their rifles to go to meals and church.

About a month after arriving, though, the unit’s commander, Captain Thomas E. Connell, ordered his troops to arrest every able-bodied male and detain them in work camps. In a town that for years had suffered raids by slavers, Connell’s order was the “nail in Company C’s coffin,” wrote historian Bob Couttie in his account of the battle.

Filipino rebels streamed into the town. Hidden in women’s clothing, men carried coffins filled with bolos – Filipino machetes – into the church. On the morning of Sept. 28, when the men of Company C racked their rifles in the barracks and left to eat corned beef hash at the mess hall, about 500 men armed with bolos swarmed the town. US troops heard bells and the wail of conch shells, which was either the rebels’ signal to attack or a call for reinforcements.

Few soldiers could reach their weapons. Connell was caught jumping from a second-story window and was killed in the streets below. The attack, sometimes called a massacre, was over in 20 minutes. “

After regrouping, US troops returned to Balangiga in force. They bombarded the town with cannons, and set it ablaze. The three bells remained in the ruins of the church. But the retribution did not end there.

Theodore Roosevelt, who was responsible for the conduct of the war in the Philippines for part of 1902, had earlier reflected on the justification for such harsh tactics. “In a fight with savages, where the savages themselves perform deeds of hideous cruelty, a certain proportion of whites are sure to do the same thing,” he said. In the reprisals for Balangiga, US troops are said to have killed as many as 50,000 Filipinos.

In 2014, more than 3,000 online petitioners also urged the US to return the Balangiga Bells. When then US President Barack Obama visited the Philippines that year, however, the US leader said nothing about this so-called war booty.