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BY EDGARDO J. ANGARA
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The Balangiga Bells
PRESIDENT Duterte, during his State of the Nation Address (SONA), asked the United States to return to the Philippines the three “Balangiga Bells” taken by US soldiers in 1901 as war booty from the parish church of Balangiga in Eastern Samar.
During the Philippine-American war, Filipino rebels ambushed on Sept. 28, 1901 Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment. Forty-eight out of 78 US soldiers were killed and 22 were wounded.
In retaliation, US General Jacob H. Smith ordered every Filipino male above 10 years old should be killed, instructing his subordinates to burn houses, take no prisoners alive, and turn the interior of Samar into “a howling wilderness.” Following Smith’s orders, American soldiers burned 255 homes and killed 39 Filipinos over an 11-day period.
The departing US troops took with them the Balangiga Bells. One of these bells is at the US base Camp Red Cloud in Ujieongbu City, South Korea, still under the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment. The other two are at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA.
Historian Ambeth Ocampo once wrote, “During the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War, bells were confiscated by the enemy because they could be used to send signals far and wide in an age before the cellphone, or they could be melted down and made into weapons or bullets.”
But the bells held greater cultural significance for early Filipinos. They were used to signal the start of masses, announce marriages, births and deaths, and warn of looming dangers like fires, typhoons or attackers. According to Ocampo, early Filipinos lived “bajo la campana” — literally under the bell.
The return of the Balangiga Bells has always been a sore point in Philippine-American relations. The bells are emblematic of the Filipinos’ struggle for freedom. History is replete with nations’ treasures taken as booty of conquests. Some were voluntarily returned, others kept hostage.
The UNESCO has exhorted conquerors to return the treasures to the owners. The US, we hope and pray, will heed the call. (angara.ed@gmail.com| Facebook & Twitter: @edangara)/PN
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