UNRAVELING
By Getsy Tiglao
A year ago, during his second State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte narrated the heartbreaking story of the 1901 Balangiga massacre, where as many as 50,000 Filipinos were killed by US soldiers on orders from a ruthless general to turn Samar into a “howling wilderness.”
After they completed their gruesome task, the US Army took with them as war booty three bells from the church in Balangiga, Samar Island. Two of the bells are displayed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while one is on exhibit at a regimental museum in Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, South Korea.
In his SONA speech on July 24, 2017, Duterte demanded the return of the Balangiga bells. “Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonizers and sacrificed their lives in the process… That is why I say today: give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage.”
Now comes a report that the US government plans to return the three bells to the Philippines. Trude Raizen, the US Embassy’s deputy press attaché, has been quoted as saying that Defense Secretary James Mattis has informed the US Congress of their plan to return the Balangiga bells.
If indeed the bells are returned to the Philippines, then it will be a major victory for President Duterte whose independent foreign policy has upended the country’s decades-long role as the US lackey in Southeast Asia. It has turned out to be a good policy move, gaining for the country a higher level of respect from other nations who see Duterte as a strong leader worthy of his people.
And ironically, it seems that very country that Duterte has been harshly vocal against, is starting to look at the Philippines in a different, more respectful, way. How else to explain the US plan to repatriate the bells, which previous administrations had tried but failed to do so? Not even former President Fidel V. Ramos, a graduate of the US Military Academy in West Point, could get the US government to budge despite years of requesting the bells’ return.
It won’t be easy sailing, however. The US military considers the Balangiga bells not only as war booty, but also as part of its retaliatory act against the Filipino revolutionaries who attacked the 9th Infantry Regiment in Samar. The bells rung at the church signalled the start of the surprise attack on the regiment, where 48 US soldiers died. It was considered as the US’ worst military defeat since the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
The US side has been portraying the death of the 48 US soldiers as the “Balangiga massacre.” However, the real massacre was the monstrous retaliatory act by the US military. As many as 50,000 Filipinos died in their brutal and indiscriminate killing spree, which included the slaying of children.
As President Duterte related it in 2017: “US gunboats and patrols were sent to Balangiga, Samar, with the order to ‘make a desert of Balangiga’ and to reduce Samar Island into an island of ‘howling wilderness’, where every male citizen from the age of ten and above, and capable of bearing arms, would be put to death.” The whole town was burned and everything was killed and destroyed, including the carabaos.
Why is it important to remember these horrific chapters in our history? One is to remind us of the sacrifice and heroism of the Filipino revolutionaries, especially the Samareños who resisted the occupation by the foreign invaders. Second, it is the remembrance of these important events, and the feelings they engender that builds up national pride and love of country.
Duterte has led the way in trying to make Filipinos more aware of their patriotic and historic past. He called those who participated in the Balangiga insurrection “real patriots” who did the right thing because they valued their freedom and did not want to be under a foreign power.
At last year’s Balangiga Encounter Day event in Samar, he laid a wreath at the monument of Captain Valeriano Abanador, the leader of the Samarenos who attacked American soldiers in Balangiga in September 1901. He also said he was considering conferring on the descendants of the Balangiga warriors the Order of Lapu-Lapu, a presidential award for Filipinos who have given exceptional service to the nation.
But at the same time, he struck a conciliatory tone when it came to the US. Duterte, who is on good terms with US President Donald Trump, said he hopes that the US Congress will give Trump the authority to return the Balangiga bells. Despite the American misdeeds in the past, these, he said, were already water under the bridge as the two countries have fought numerous wars together as allies.
“Just return it and we would be happy,” Duterte said in his speech in Samar. “We are not angry at you. We are just saying that those bells would touch in the core of our existence as a Filipino.”