The Balangiga bells as metaphor

US President Barack Obama has come and gone. He brought home with him the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) just what he wanted. But still thinking Filipinos are wondering just what the visit was for and who it benefited more. There were the usual frills and frivolities that come with state visits, a perk that some aspiring presidents think that is what they are elected for. And this Philippine president was no exception.

Awkward he might be to many but he is probably the right person to be a ceremonial president. He does not have to think. He just needs to go through the motions of representing the country in rituals like a state visit. But thinking Filipinos who want to understand what that visit was for and its significance to their well-being, their lives and fortunes are still weighing the pros and cons.

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Interestingly, there was a discussion on a post I made in social media whether it might be a good opportunity to repeat the request for the nth time of the return of the Balangiga bells during Obama’s visit.

There were some who knew what the Balangiga bells were about but many others did not. Those who did not said “these are only bells, pieces of metal that are better off in American hands than if they were to be returned and probably stolen by Filipino politicians, made into scrap and sold for a few pieces of silver. But, thinking Filipinos who did know what the Balangiga bells were and what they stood for said they wanted it returned. And what better opportunity to ask than during a visit purportedly to renew the special friendship between the two countries? To me the story of the Balangiga bells is an  apt metaphor for  US-Philippines special relations.

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Before my more “American than the Americans” friends jump at me for using the metaphor, let me tell the story of Balangiga bells as told and and researched byWikipedia.

“On Sept. 28, 1901, Filipino freedom fighters from the village of Balangiga ambushed Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment, while they were at breakfast, killing an estimated 48 and wounding 22 of the 78 men of the unit, with only four escaping unhurt. The villagers captured about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. An estimated 20 to 25 of the villagers had died in the fighting, with a similar number of wounded.

In reprisal, General Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a “howling wilderness” and that any Filipino male above ten years of age capable of bearing arms be shot. From the burned-out Catholic town church, the Americans looted three bells that they took back to the United States as war booty. “

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After that brilliant triumph of poorly armed Filipino villagers of Balangiga ,the town was recaptured on September 29, 1901 by 55 men of Company G, 9th Infantry.

The Cheyenne Daily Leader newspaper reported on an occasion that a cannon had been mounted on the parade ground near the flagpole along with other relics from the Philippines “...to include the famous bell which gave the signal for the massacre of a whole company.“

From the story it tells, clearly the bells belong to the poorly armed villagers of Balangiga for their ingenuity  in using the bells against a superior enemy — the well armed American invaders.

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There have been attempts to recover the bells but to no avail. Fidel V. Ramos tried to get it from American President Bill Clinton, the Catholic Church through the CBCP also tried “saying church bells were inappropriate as trophies of war.”

In 2002, The Philippine Senate approved Senate Resolution No. 393, authored by Aquilino Pimentel Jr., urging the Arroyo administration to undertake formal negotiations with the United States for the return of the bells.

In 2005, the bishop of Borongan, Samar, Bishop Leonardo Medroso and Balangiga parish priest Saturnino Obzunar wrote an open letter to President George W. Bush, the United States Congress and the Helsinki Commission, requesting the return of the bells.

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The most recent request comes from the townsfolk of Balangiga who saw an opportunity to ask again for the bells when Americans came to town during the Haiyan destruction. This story was filed by Nathan Layne of Reuters who interviewed officials of the town last November 2013.

“In the devastated coastal town of Balangiga, a Roman Catholic belfry with a maroon steeple rises from the rubble, a battered symbol of resistance for a people with mixed feelings about the US military now helping them survive.

After one of the world’s most powerful typhoons roared across the central Philippines and killed more than 4,000 people, US military helicopters are flying in aid to desperate regions such as this once-picturesque fishing village of 12,600 people in ravaged Samar province.

 It was here 112 years ago that one of the darkest chapters of American colonialism began: the island-wide massacre by US soldiers of thousands of Filipinos, including women and children, in response to the killing of 48 US soldiers by rebels.

After months of bloodshed, animosity has festered for more than a century over the ultimate insult: seizure of the town’s church bells by US troops.

Marciano Deladia, a chief aide to the mayor, and other residents are thankful for the US packets of rice and other food. “But we want our bells back,” he said.

The dispute over the Balangiga bells underscores the difficulty the United States will face in transforming goodwill over its aid to typhoon victims into a bigger military presence on the ground in the Philippines.

“We don’t have any animosity against the American people,” said Deladia, standing in front of a monument recreating the ambush of US troops. But the bells, he said, are “part of our historical heritage.”

An assistant at the St. Lawrence The Martyr Parish Church, which stands on the site of the 1901 ambush, told Reuters “retrieving the bells was important for a full accounting of the past, good and bad, to pass on to the younger generation.“

Some people say, ‘What’s the big deal with the bells?’ To that I say: Why is it such a big deal that you have to keep the bells?’” said Fe Campanero, a secretary at the church.

This is the answer to US Ambassador Philip Goldberg who asked “what more must we say for Filipinos to believe we will defend them if China attacked.” We can start with the Balangiga bells.