Balangiga bells battle reaches US Congress

WASHINGTON — The battle for the Bells of Balangiga, considered by Filipinos as symbols of their country’s struggle for independence, is spilling into the halls of the US Congress.

Sonny Sampayan of New York, a special envoy of the diocese of Borongan under whose jurisdiction Balangiga falls, told The STAR that to trump Wyoming’s politicians he would ask Filipino-American community leaders to write their state senators and congressmen to spur them to vote for the return of the historic church bells.

The Wyoming Veterans Commission voted recently to return the bells, two of which are on display at Warren air force base outside Cheyenne.

But the state’s Republican senators Mike Enzi and Craig Thomas said the disputed bells should remain where they are. A third bell is with the 9th US Infantry Regiment in South Korea.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and Republican congresswoman Barbara Cubin also oppose the return of the bells.

Sampayan, born in Binalonan, Pangasinan on Nov. 9, 1957 is a retired US air force master sergeant.

He has been in the forefront of a renewed campaign to get the bells back since Bishop Leonardo Medroso of Borongan in Eastern Samar visited the US about 18 months ago to lobby for their return.

Medroso has taken it upon himself to recover the bells following years of fruitless negotiations between the Philippines and the US, hoping he will succeed where the Philippine government has failed.

To help in his quixotic quest, Medroso has enlisted Sampayan and a small band of loyal supporters including Erwin "Swede" Huelsewede, a special assistant to Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi during the first Bush presidency, to continue his work.

In a letter last week to Robert Palmer, Wyoming Veterans Commission chairman, Sampayan and Huelsewede thanked the commission for its decision to return the bells to the Philippines.

"These bells are valued significantly not only for their place in history that binds both Filipinos and Americans, but also for the opportunity they present in fostering much stronger ties, and in enhancing lasting goodwill between the two countries, the Philippines and the United States," read the letter.

"It is our fervent hope that these bells, when restored to their original settings in the Catholic parish of the town of Balangiga, could ring again — this time as a spiritual symbol of the bond that will always exist between our two countries."

Sampayan and Huelsewede sent copies of their letter to President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson, and to members of Congress.

Until Wyoming’s politicians declared their open opposition last month to the return of the bells, Sampayan and company had been working quietly with Jean Wall, daughter of Adolph Gamlin, one of the few American survivors at Balangiga, and Joseph Sestak of the Wyoming Veterans Commission to build momentum for their cause.

"Returning the bells is the right thing to do in light of the present international climate and the fact that many nations are now returning artifacts or booty to the nations from which they came," Sestak said.

Wall has been the heart and soul of the campaign to return the bells to the Philippines — "the ‘Holy Bible’ on the Bells of Balangiga," is how Sampayan refers to her.

In an appeal to those opposed to the return of the bells, Wall said recently: "I don’t think my father and his comrades who survived that horrible ordeal at Balangiga would be proud of any other decision but to send the bells home and close the book on that chapter of our history."

"I am sure that the majority of Americans today, both military and civilian, want to act upon those ideals that America was founded on in a manner that sets an example of compassionate and democratic society," she added

On the other hand, Medroso has been praying, or as he puts it "troubling heaven with my shameless cries."

He knows "a long, hard road" has to be taken because the memories that the bells embody and the sentiments that they symbolize are priceless.

"For me what happened on Sept. 28, 1901 was not a freak accident," he said.

"It was the work of history. And history oftentimes has a way of joining two people together, two countries, and two races. The encounter, the bloody combat, the senseless loss of lives of our dear ones, the hate, the nightmares, all these are part of the unfolding of history. 

"But so also (is) the struggle to understand each other, to let go of hate and animosities, to extend the open hands for pardon and forgiveness, to embrace one another as brothers and sisters.

"The Bells of Balangiga have stood as the mute yet faithful witness to the history of the two countries: America and the Philippines; history of two communities: Wyoming and Balangiga."

Since the 1950s the Philippines has been unable to make any headway on the issue of the bells in on-and-off negotiations with the US.

The last official negotiations apparently was in 1997-1998, initiated by President Fidel Ramos, said Sestak.

"The motives at that time were strictly a political move by Ramos to keep his party in power by bringing the bells back to the Philippines and assuring his party a victory," he said. 

"His requests were denied for the right reasons."

The ringing of the church bells on Sept. 28, 1901 signaled the start of a guerrilla attack against US soldiers occupying Balangiga, inflicting heavy casualties on them. 

In retaliation, American reinforcements killed tens of thousands of Filipinos, many of them civilians, and the bells were shipped as war booty to Wyoming, home of the reinforcement troops.