After 117 years, the Bells of Balangiga returning to the Philippines

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Workmen packed the church bells of Balangiaga in Wyomoing last Nov. 11.

THE BELLS OF BALANGIGA will be returning to the Philippines on Dec. 15.

"Your bells of Balangiga are coming back home. They are scheduled to arrive on December 15 to a simple ceremony at Villamor Airbase in the morning," Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in Ormoc City, Leyte. last week.

For more than a century, the “Bells of Balangiga” have hung at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming after being siezed as war trophies by American soldiers of the Philippine-American War in 1901 after 48 American soldiers were killed by Filipino freedom fighters in Balangiga, Eastern Samar. Historians believe one of the bells gave the signal to begin the attack by bolo-wielding  Filipinos. It was the worst defeat of U.S. forces in the war.

In response, U.S. Brig. Gen. (Howling) Jacob H. Smith ordered that Balangiga and Samar be turned into a "howling wilderness" and allegedly said that any Filipino male above 10 years of age capable of bearing arms should be shot. The result was a 6-month long campaign resulting in the massacre of thousands of men, women and children.
The three church bells were seized as war booty. Two of the bells were brought to the U.S. and housed at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.  The third bell was transported to a U.S. military museum in South Korea. 

The bells have been a bone of contention between the U.S. and Philippines for decades. President Rodrigo Duterte revived the request. He said he would not visit the U.S. until the bells were returned.

 “Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonizers and sacrificed their lives in the process,” Duterte said last year.

“Give us back those Balangiga bells,” he added. “They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage. Give them back. It’s painful for us.”

Defense Secretary James Mattis promised that he would deliver the bells. He told the U.S. Congress that it was a matter of national security to return the bells.

Wyoming leaders and veterans groups fought against the bells' return to the Philippines but two major veterans groups -- The Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Ameriican Legion -- threw their support for the bells' return. They lobbied for a bill that would fund the restoration and return of the bells to the Philippine church where they were originally housed.

A structure has been built outside of the church in Balangiga where the bells will be on display telling the story of the Filipinos defending their country from invaders.

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