‘Bells of Balangiga’ come home at last

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December 12, 2018

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‘Bells of Balangiga’ come home at last

Source: Agencies | 07:06 UTC+8 December 12, 2018 |

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Church bells taken as war trophies by US forces more than a century ago arrived in the Philippines yesterday, ending Manila’s decades-long quest for the return of some of the most famous symbols of resistance to US colonialism.

The “Bells of Balangiga” landed in a military cargo plane at a Manila air base ahead of their return on Saturday to a church in Samar, the central island where US troops in 1901 massacred hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Filipinos to avenge an ambush that killed 48 of their comrades.

“I’m a little bit excited and a little bit emotional. At last we have seen the bells,” Father Lentoy Tybaco, the parish priest of Balangiga, told domestic television.

Two of the bells had been on display at an air force base in Wyoming, the other at a US army museum in South Korea. Their return follows years of lobbying by former presidents, priests and historians, and challenges from Wyoming veterans and lawmakers opposed to dismantling a war memorial.

The battles in Balangiga that took place toward the end of the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War marked one of the darkest chapters of US colonialism.

The bells were rung to signal an attack on American forces, who retaliated with a massacre in which women and children were killed.

Last year, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis promised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that he would push hard for their return.

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‘Bells of Balangiga’ come home at last

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