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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Sunday Read: Battle renewed over Bells of Balangiga

Two of the Bells of Balingiga are in display at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.

DEPENDING ON which side of the Philippine-American War you study, the Bells of Balangiga are either a memorial to the American war dead; or, a tribute honoring Filipino patriots. 

That -- in a nutshell -- is the central argument over a set of three church bells taken from a church in the Philippines by American soldiers during the Philippine-American War, a little known chapter that hardly gets a paragraph in U.S. history books.

Desperately looking for an ally in Asia, the Trump administration wants to appease Philippine strongman President Rodrigo Duterte by returning the set of bells that have been in U.S. hands since the Philippine War 

Wyoming's congressional delegation is deadset against returning the church bells seized as war trophies over a century ago.

Wyoming officials reiterated their continuing opposition to returning the Bells of Balangiga amid reports that the war prizes were to be returned to the church where they were seized during the Philippine-American War. 

"These bells are memorials to American war dead and should not be transferred to the Philippines," the all-GOP delegation made up of U.S. Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, said in a joint statement August 12.

However, this time, the U.S. Defense Department appears intent on returning the church bells.

Defense Secretary James Mattis wrote members of Congress last weekend saying it was "in the national security interest of the United States" to return the bells.

Following Mattis' notification to Congress of intent to return the bells, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said in a statement last week, "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."

Two of the  hurch bells are at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The third is with the U.S. Army in South Korea.

Requests for the return of the bells have been made by every Philippines administration since the term of President Fidel Ramos in the 1990s to no avail.

AYALA MUSEUM

A diorama shows the attack against the American soldiers.

U.S. Army soldiers took the bells following an attack on the island of Samar in which 48 American troops were killed in 1901. At that point, it was the worse defeat of the U.S. military in the Philippine-American War.

While Americans see the bells as war trophies and a memorial to the American soldiers who died in that forgotten war, Filipinos see the bells as a symbol of resistance to the war artrocities committed by U.S. troops during the Filipinos' war for independence.

The Philippines, a colony of Spain for 300 years, began fighting for independence in 1896. By 1898, Spain had been defeated everywhere in the Philippines except in their stronghold in Manila. The U.S. declared war against Spain in May of 1898. By the end of the year, in an agreement with the U.S., (perhaps out of pride), Spain surrendered to the U.S. rather than to the Filipino freedom fighters.

After Spain's defeat, the U.S. took possession of the Spanish colonies that included the Philippines, Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico. With the aim to create its own far-flung empire, the U.S. refused to give up the Philippines to the Filipinos. The Filipino revolutionaries, who felt betrayed by their former ally, continued their war for independence, but this time, against the United States.

On Sept. 28, 1901, Company C of the 9th Infantry was sent to Balangiga to cut off supply lines to the freedom fighters. The unit was attacked by bolo-wielding Filipinos, with the ringing bells allegedly signaling the attack.

The church in Balangiga was rebuilt after being burnt to the ground by U.S. soldiers. The adjoiing belfrey
was constructed with hopes to house the bells..

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.F

Smith later faced a court-martial with testimony coming from some of the men under his command. He was found guilty, admonished and forced to retire.

According to the Defense Department, nearly 4,200 U.S. troops died, mostly from disease, in the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War and the guerrilla resistance to U.S. colonial rule that continued into 1913. Facing superior firepower, the Philippines' lost the lives of 20,000 soldiers and over 100,000-250,000 civilians in the 3-year long conflict.

Two of the bells are on display at F.E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The third is with the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Regiment in South Korea.

In a statement issued Friday (Aug. 17), the Philippines' Department of National Defense said the return of the bells would serve as a symbol of the United State’s sincerity and commitment to its long-term alliance with the Philippines.

“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 said in the statement.

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Duterte and Trump are BFFs; human rights comes up very briefly

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called American media "spies," much to the amusement of Donald Trump.

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte sang a Filipino love song to Donald Trump. Uh, oh. Should Vladimir Putin be worried?


In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump praised his “great relationship” with Duterte. The issue of human rights abuses because of the drug crackdown didn’t come up, according to Duterte spokesman Harry Roque — or came up only “briefly,” according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

At the welcome dinner the first night in Manila, Duterte took to the mike and sang a duet with songstress Pilita Corrales. The song was ""Ikaw" (You), a song of love. It was an awkward moment, to be sure, since the Philippine strongman would not win any karaoke contests and it's not clear if Trump understood the Tagalog lyrics.


"In addition to their shared, racially tinged loathing of Obama — just last week, the Philippine leader called the former American president 'so black and arrogant' — Trump and Duterte also bonded over their inability to deal with tough questions from reporters," reported The Inquisitor, a Filipino newspaper. When Duterte called American reporters “spies” for wanting to know if the two had discussed human rights, Trump laughed out loud.

Duterte and Trump had a side meeting during the Asean conference being held in Manila. In their first face-to-face meeting Monday, Trump praised his “great relationship” with Duterte. Immediately after the meeting, Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said the issue of human rights abuses because of the drug crackdown didn’t come up — or came up only “briefly,” according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

However, late Monday, a joint statement was released. "The two sides underscored that human rights and the dignity of human life are essential, and agreed to continue mainstreaming the human rights agenda in their national programs to promote the welfare of all sectors, including the most vulnerable groups," read the statement .

The only mention of Duterte''s controversial war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives came later in the statement.

"The two sides discussed the ongoing campaign in the Philippines against criminality including illegal drugs," it said. Expounding on this, the statement said both countries would share best practices in "transparency in investigations."

"Both sides acknowledged that illegal drug use is a problem afflicting both countries and committed to share best practices in the areas of prevention; enforcement, including capacity-building and transparency in investigations; and rehabilitation."

Duterte, sometimes referred to as the Donald Trump of Asia, and 45 have at least one thing in common: They both don't like former President Barack Obama.

"I have been your friend since I was elected," said Trump to Duterte. "My predecessor was not your friend."

Trump finally found someone he could admire who is not Putin. 

Duterte has boasted of killing people he didn't like, he arrested and imprisoned his chief critic in the Philippine Congress, journalists live in fear for their lives (over 120 journalists have been killed in the past year), lamented that he didn't rape a woman, and, despite all this, Duterte enjoys an 80% to 90% approval rating from the Filipino people.

They both consider themselves outsiders in the political circles of Manila and Washington, respectively. Their campaigns had populist themes.

Duterte, like Trump, has upset the world order, aligning with former enemies and disregarding long time relationships with allies.

Trump left the Manila believing he had mended the century-old relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines that frayed when Duterte came into power. Duterte called former  Obama a "son of a whore" and shifted the balance of power in Asia when he seemed to rebuff the U.S. by turning to China and Russia for assistance.


The Philippine visit was the last leg of a 12-day trip to five countries during which Trump visited Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Trump's silence "adds insults to grievous injury to the thousands of victims and their families, to the efforts of Filipinos dedicated to the rule of law and accountability," Phelim Kine, Deputy Director for Asia Human Rights Watch, said to Rappler.

"Trump is failing to understand that words have power and failure to speak out could have a lot of symbolic value in terms of how Filipinos view the United States and the Philippine relationship with the United States."_________________________________________________________________________________