PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz
One
of the most – if not the most – atrocious massacres committed against Filipinos
occurred in Eastern Samar during the Philippine-American War. The
order was to “kill and burn” the Filipinos insurgents and burn the town to
serve as punishment for what the American forces suffered at the hands of
Filipino revolutionaries earlier.
It
all began on August 11, 1901, with the arrival of Company C of the 9th U.S.
Infantry Regiment in the coastal town of Balangiga. The purpose of
the Americans’ deployment to Samar was to close its port and prevent supplies
from reaching the Philippine revolutionaries under the command of General
Vicente Lukban, who served under Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo while at
war with the U.S.
Consequently, U.S. Brig. Gen.. Robert P.
Hughes, commander of the Department of the Visayas, instigated an aggressive
policy of food deprivation and property destruction on the island of Samar and
the closure of key ports, which included Balangiga. Hughes’
objective was to force the end of Filipino resistance.
Relations
between the American soldiers and the townspeople were amicable for the first
month of the American presence. It was marked by extensive
fraternization between the two parties.
This took the form of “tuba” (a
local concoction) drinking among the Americans and the
villagers. The Americans taught the villagers how to play baseball,
while the villagers taught the Americans the martial art of “arnis.”
Balangiga
massacre
On
September 21, 1901, an incident occurred that broke the friendly relationship
between the Americans and the townspeople. As the story goes, a
Filipino girl named Catalina was selling tuba in her
family’s tuba store when two American troopers who had been
drinking tuba tried to make some advances on the girl.
Catalina
shouted for help. Her brother and some friends came to her rescue
and a brawl started. The two troopers ran to their
barracks. Their commander, Capt. Tomas Connell ordered his troops to
round up all the men in the town and detain them.
A few days later, Valeriano Abanador, the
town’s police chief, met with Captain Eugenio Daza of Lukban’s revolutionaries,
to plan a coordinated attack on the Americans.
In
his research of the Balangiga Massacre, filmmaker Khavn De La Cruz, said: “Reinforcements
were covertly slipped into town, under the guise of workers who were helping to
prepare for a fiesta. The Americans were fed and given tuba to ensure that they
would be drunk. The women were evacuated and replaced by men dressed in women's
clothes. They hid their bolos and other weapons in small coffins, passed off as
the coffins of children who were victims of a cholera epidemic. Everything was
ready.”
At around 6:45 in the morning of September 28,
Lukban’s revolutionaries, who numbered around 400, ambushed the American
troops. The Balangiga bells were used as a signal for the Filipino
revolutionaries when to attack the U.S. barracks. Disguised as
laborers, they surprised the Americans who were eating
breakfast.
The
townspeople and revolutionaries killed 48 soldiers, wounded 22 of the 78 men of
Company C. The rest escaped by sea. The Filipinos captured about 100
rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. The revolutionaries and villagers
suffered 28 dead and 22 wounded. They then abandoned Balangiga for
fear of reprisal.
Howling
wilderness
And
true enough the Americans returned… with vengeance. U.S. General
Jacob H.. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a “Howling
Wilderness.” The bloody operation resulted in the death of more than
2,500 Filipinos. The Americans then looted the three bells in the
church, which they took back to the United States as spoils of war.
General Smith and his subordinate, Major
Littleton Waller, were court-martialed for “illegal vengeance” against the
civilian population of Samar. Waller was acquitted while Smith was
found guilty, admonished, and retired from service. However, the charges
against Smith were dropped later. He was later hailed as a “war
hero.”
But a soldier who participated in the massacre
described his testimony: “The major said that General Smith instructed him
to kill and burn, and said that the more he killed and burned the better
pleased he would be; that it was no time to take prisoners, and that he was to
make Samar a howling wilderness. Major Waller asked General Smith to define the
age limit for killing, and he replied ‘everyone over ten.’”
War
trophies
The
three bells were brought to the U.S. as war trophies. Today, they’re
displayed in two places. One bell is in the possession of the 9th
Infantry Regiment at their base in Camp Red Cloud in South
Korea. The other two are displayed on a former base of the 11th
Infantry Regiment at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne,
Wyoming.
The return of the bells is one of the most
contentious issues and irritants in US-Philippines relations. The
Philippine government’s demands for the return of the bells fell on deaf
ears. After decades of attempts to get them back, the bells continue
to wander in the “howling wilderness” in the minds of Filipinos.
In
1994, then President Fidel V. Ramos initiated attempts to recover the bells
during the time of U.S. President Bill Clinton. The U.S.
government replied that since the bells were U.S. government property, it would
take an act of Congress to return them. Further attempts were made
in 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2007.
A
century of denial
For
more than a century after the heinous massacre in Balangiga, America stood pat
on her stand that the Balangiga belongs to her, to be displayed as trophies of
war. But to the Filipinos, it was a grim memory of how their ancestors fought
mighty America with their bolos. It left a lasting reminder of their
ancestors’ willingness and readiness to die for freedom and independence.
In the past few years, memories of the
Balangiga bells began to ring again… louder. Their tolls are heard
again in the psyche of the Filipinos -- “We want the bells
back!” The least the Americans could have done was to return one or
two of the three bells. But many Filipinos, proud as ever, wouldn’t
settle for that, it’s “all or nothing.” And “nothing” it
was. The U.S. simply wouldn’t budge.
In
2014, interest in the Balangiga bells was renewed when then President Barack
Obama visited the Philippines. More than 3,000 signed an online
petitioner urging the U.S. to return the bells. But there was
no response.
On July 24, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte
delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) that was quite different from
past SONAs. He told the U.S. to return the iconic Balangiga
bells. "Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. They
belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage,” he said in
the presence of U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim who showed no
reaction.
The
return of the bells
The
following year, on August 10, 2018, a breakthrough happened! A
prominent Eastern Visayas historian, Rolando Borrinaga announced a message he
received from Bellevue, Nebraska Mayor Rita Gomez Sanders, who told him about
the supposed announcement from US Defense Secretary James Mattis. “Good
news today!” she said, “The Secretary of Defense announced the return of the Bells! Keep
you posted for announcements, etc! I am so happy for you!” Mayor
Sanders is Filipino-American.
Borrinaga said that Sanders got the information
from Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, who got the information from Mattis. In his
Facebook account, Borrinaga noted that August 10 was the fiesta of San Lorenzo
de Martir, the patron saint of Balangiga. “The final clincher is the
recommendation of the Secretary of Defense to the President for the bells to be
returned,” he said. “The final push was brought about by the concerted efforts
of U.S. veterans working for goodwill and understanding between both
countries.”
The following day, August 11, it became
official. The U.S. Embassy in Manila confirmed the intention of the U.S.
Department of Defense to return the Balangiga bells to the
Philippines.
The
embassy also said that Defense Secretary Mattis has notified the U.S. Congress
of their intention to return the bells, which was necessary to get the
concurrence of the U.S. Congress as provided for in the U.S. National Defense
Authorization Act for 2018.
However, several U.S. lawmakers -- Wyoming Rep.
Liz Cheney, Sen. Mike Enzi, and Sen. John Barraso -- expressed “strong
disapproval” of the plan. They are expected to oppose the return of
the bells.
But
the Philippine Department of National Defense (DND) looks at it
differently. In a statement issued by the DND, it said: “We call on
the American people not to allow the bells to serve as trophies for atrocities
that were committed by both sides on Philippine soil a very long time ago. “The
return of the Balangiga Bells will be a strong indicator of the sincerity of
the Americans in forging a lasting relationship with the Filipino people and
truly symbolic of what their government has referred to in the past as an
ironclad alliance between our two countries.”
The
DND also reminded its American counterparts of the time both countries fought
side-by-side during World War II and its current work fighting terrorism today.
The saga of the Balangiga bells is an epic story
that has defined Filipino nationalism and heroism. For 117 years,
the bells traveled from a town ravaged by war to the other side of the world
where they were displayed as war trophies. “Return the Balangiga!”
became the battle cry of generations of Filipinos whose pride have been hurt
deeply by the indignity suffered by their forefathers.
Now,
the bells will soon make their trip back to where they came from, the historic
town of Balangiga. It’s time to rejoice!
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