The Bells

Hear the tolling of the bells – Iron bells! What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! In the silence of the night; How we shiver with affright. At the melancholy menace of their tone! For every sound that floats; from the rust within their throats – is a groan. And the people – ah, the people…They that dwell up in the steeple, all alone. And who tolling, tolling, tolling in that muffled monotone; Feel a glory in so rolling; On the human heart a stone. They are neither man nor woman. They are neither brute nor human. They are Ghouls: And their king it is who tolls; And he rolls, rolls, rolls. A paean from the bells! And his merry bosom swells. With the paean of the bells! And he dances, and he yells; Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme. To the paean of the bells, of the bells. Keeping time, time, time… To the throbbing of the bells…Of the bells, bells, bells. As he knells, knells, knells. In a happy Runic rhyme. To the rolling of the bells…Of the bells, bells, bells. To the tolling of the bells…Of the bells, bells, bells, bells…To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

The poem you just read was written by Edgar Allan Poe, the most influential American writer in the 19th century. The poem is entitled The Bells. It was published after his death in 1849. It is a four-part poem that starts on a happy note but as it progresses, it becomes sad, desperate, dark.

The poem makes me reflect on the story of our country, the different islands down to the small towns. We were once a simple, happy, loving and caring lot. Today people are taking advantage of each other. We also allow great powers to influence us for personal greed. We seem to have abandoned the care and the protection of our country.

Of course, the poem also reminds me of the story of the town of Balangiga and its church bells. A happy town suddenly turned into killing fields. And a country desperate to save its sovereignty, lost because of avarice and power of its attackers and a few elites from our own.

 Are we excited for the coming of the Balangiga Bells? These bells have just brought back many hair-raising stories of our past. It has opened a new story to our country’s history. It is a story we almost want to erase in our history and forget but shouldn’t.

The Balangiga Bells have forced us to read more and pry more about our country’s past. Yes, things are beginning to be clearer in our minds. We are starting to accept the truth which was once overshadowed by stories made up by our colonizers. It is sad to note that to this day, we are blinded and we have lost sight of who we truly are.

The Balangiga bells are three church bells taken by the United States Army in 1901 from the town church of Balangiga, Eastern Samar. Historians say that one of the bells was used to signal an attack of Filipinos against American troops which killed 48 American soldiers. In revenge, Americans destroyed the Eastern Samar town and killed thousands of Filipino soldiers and civilians in one of the bloodiest chapters of the Filipino-American War.

Since the late 1950’s, the Philippines has been trying to get the US to return the bells. It was our fiesty President who first brought up the seized bells in a 2016 speech, and later called for its return in his 2017 State of the Nation Address. Determined to get the bells back, Duterte, during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus meeting in Clark, Pampanga last October 2017, told US Defense Secretary James Mattis to return the bells to the country. Mattis promised to do everything he can to return the bells.

The process of returning the bells to the Philippines, became possible after a 1998 US law barring the return of war articles expired in September 2017. In an interview with CNN – The Source, Philippine Ambassador to the US Babe Romualdez said that they had to wait for 90 days after the law expired to allow any appeal to be made against the return of the bells. Finally, on November 9, the 90-day period expired, the process of returning the bells to the country began.

Henry Howard, Dennis Wright and Brian Buzzell of the US-Philippines Society were also instrumental in the return of the Balangiga bells as they lobbied US lawmakers to remove the legal barriers against it, Romualdez added.

After 117 years, the three Balangiga bells are expected to arrive at the Villamor Airbase tomorrow, December 11 at around 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. from Okinawa, Japan. Romualdez said a solemn ceremony would be held, where Duterte and US Defense Assistant Secretary Joseph Felter are expected to attend.

He added that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana plans to put the bells on display for public viewing before these are returned to the Balangiga Church.

“I think this is very historical and very important for both countries to put closure to it. But more importantly, I think, this is a symbol of the kind of respect, the mutual respect, for our sovereignty as a nation that is being given to us by the United States,” Romualdez said. He also shared that at one point the bells were not even given attention and that they were stored in the basement of a building set for demolition in a US air base until historian Fr. Horacio dela Costa pointed out in 1957 its historical significance.

Yes, the Balangiga Bells are coming home. What a wonderful time of the year – Christmas.  I wonder how they sound? Will the bells evoke an emotion of merriment? Triumph? Despair? Hope? Abangan!