CHURCH BELLS taken as war trophies by United States forces more than a century ago arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday, Dec. 11, ending Manila’s decades-long quest for the return of some of the most famous symbols of resistance to American 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 Balangiga, Eastern 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 as the bells were lifted from boxes and displayed on a runway.
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, resulting in legislation that barred their removal.
The battles in Balangiga that took place towards the end of the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War marked one of the darkest chapters of US colonialism.
Historians say the bells were rung to signal the start of the surprise attack on American forces, who retaliated with a massacre in which women and children were killed.
Last year U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis promised Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte that he would push hard for their return, which Mr. Duterte had demanded during his annual state of the nation address.
The move could help to appease Mr. Duterte, who has made a point of lashing out regularly at Washington, despite a tight US-Philippines defence alliance.
He has condemned what he sees as the United States’ history of hypocrisy, arrogance and political interference.
Duterte has yet to visit the US as president, calling it “lousy,” although his foreign minister last month hinted the bells’ return might prompt a change of heart.
Giving the bells back was “overwhelmingly viewed as the right thing to do,” said Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines.
Mr. Kim said in a press briefing, “It was a painful chapter for us, so the return of bells is to close that chapter….The return of the bells is giving importance to the past.”
At the turnover ceremony held at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said, “Now, they are home. They are going back to where they belong. It is time for healing, it is time for closure,” said Department of National in his remarks. — Reuters and Vince Angelo C. Ferreras
