Online campaign launched for return of Balangiga bells

WASHINGTON — Filipino Church leaders have launched an online petition campaign for the return of the Balangiga bells looted by US forces in Samar more than 100 years ago.

They are hoping this will prod Washington to hand back the church artifacts considered by many Filipinos as symbols of their country’s independence.

The petition signed by Bishop Leonardo Medroso of Eastern Samar and Balangiga parish priest Saturnino Obzunar seeks the help of President George W. Bush and the US Congress in retrieving the bells "revered in the Philippines, much as the Liberty Bell is revered in the United States."

The petition was posted online (http://www.PetitionOnline.com/bells05/) on Tuesday to coincide with the arrival in the United States of Medroso, who is leading the latest struggle for the return of the historic church bells following years of fruitless negotiations between politicians from both countries.

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

The Catholic Church exerts a strong influence in the Philippines, where more than 80 percent of the 84 million-strong population is Roman Catholic.

Before Medroso left Samar for the United States another petition in English and Waray was circulated among the parishioners of Balangiga at Sunday Mass on May 8 calling for an end to "the painful memories of war of long ago."

The aim is to get at least 10,000 signatories to the petition which will then be presented to the US government.

Medroso will be traveling across the US for seven weeks meeting church and government officials and friends and supporters to lobby for his cause.

In New York and Washington, he will be accompanied by Filipino American Sonny Sampayan, US special envoy to the diocese of Borongan, which covers Balangiga.