"Ibalik niyo sa amin ang mga kampana ng Balangiga. Sa amin iyan. Ang mga iyan ay pag-aari ng Pilipinas. Bahagi ng aming pamanang pambansa," ("Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage,"). President Rodrigo R. Duterte SONA 2017, July 24, 2017.
Lookback: Before turning Samar into a 'howling wilderness' US first mastered the technique in MARINDUQUE by establishing concentration camps in all the towns, burning houses by the hundreds (in one account 324 houses were burned in just one town in five days), burning tons and tons of rice so the people would go hungry, killing cattle, carabaos, horses and treating males 15 years old up as enemies. Some 600 males were taken to Polo island in Sta. Cruz as prisoners. In Samar it was worse, 'Kill everyone over 10' was the order.
But of the Marinduque experiment Gov.Gen. William H. Taft said: 'The severity with which the inhabitants have been dealt with would not look well if a complete history of it were written out.'
MANILA, Philippines — Taken as war booty by American
soldiers more than a century after they last tolled to signal an attack on
their comrades, the Balangiga bells may finally return home.
The United States embassy in Manila yesterday confirmed the
intention of the US Defense Department to return the Balangiga bells to the
Philippines.
Trude Raizen, the embassy’s deputy press attaché, said
Defense Secretary James Mattis has notified the US Congress of their intention
to return the bells more than a century after they were removed by US soldiers
from the church of Balangiga town, Eastern Samar in 1901.
“No specific date has been identified for the return of the
bells. We’ve received assurances that the bells will be returned to the
Catholic Church and treated with the respect and honor they deserve,” Raizen
told The STAR.
“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,” she added.
The return of the Balangiga bells was among the constant
demands of President Duterte from the US government.
On Friday, prominent Eastern Visayas historian Rolando
Borrinaga shared initial information about the possible return of the bells.
He cited Bellevue, Nebraska Mayor Rita Gomez Sanders, a
Filipino-American, who heard of the news from her district congressman.
Borrinaga said the announcement was apparently made to time
with the fiesta of San Lorenzo de Martir in Balangiga last Friday.
Asked why Mattis has to notify the US Congress of their
intention, Borrinaga said concurrence of the legislators is necessary as
provided for in the US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2018.
“I think the lobbying for the concurrence would not be as
‘bloody’ as the lobbying for inclusion of the provisions to return the bells in
the NDAA 2018,” he told The STAR yesterday.
The ringing of the bells signaled an attack by Filipino
guerillas on US troops belonging to the 9th US Infantry Regiment. The attack
killed 48 US soldiers, including their commander.
In retaliation, Gen. Jacob Smith ordered troops sent on a
punitive mission to turn Samar into a “howling wilderness.” The US soldiers set
the town on fire and killed all Filipinos 10 years old and above or those fit
enough to carry a rifle, as ordered by Smith. The operation left more than
2,500 Filipinos dead.
One of the bells is currently in the possession of the 9th
Infantry Regiment in South Korea, while the other two are in F. E. Warren Air
Force Base in Wyoming.
It was in 1994 during the Ramos administration that a
request for the return of the bells was first made. No action was taken on
Ramos’ request, which was repeated in 1996.
In 2012, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead wrote a letter to then
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
opposing the return of the bells.- Philstar
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