The Balangiga returns
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2018 18:09:58 +0000
BY the time this column comes out, the Balangiga Bells would have already completed its journey from the time it became a symbol of Filipino bravery and resistance against foreign occupation, to being taken as war booty by American soldiers in 1901, to finally returning to Philippine soil.
I welcome the decision of the US government to finally return the Balangiga bells to its rightful place in Philippine and world history. It is a decision 117 years late but very significant nevertheless.
The Philippine government has announced that after the military ceremony held last November 15 at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, where two of the church bells are located, the bell will finally return to its home on December 11.
As early as 2007, when I was still in the Senate, I filed Senate Resolution No. 177, “Expressing the Sense of the Senate for the Return to the Philippines of the Balangiga Bells which were taken by the US Troops from the Town of Balangiga, Province of Samar in 1991.”
I believed then, and more so now, that the church bells were a part not only of the proud history of the country but also of the lives of the Filipinos because despite their poverty, the people and the church raised enough money to have the bells cast.
The bells symbolized the bravery of the Filipinos amidst foreign aggression as it served to signal the people of Balangiga to fight for their freedom, thus the surprise attack against American soldiers by the Waray revolutionaries.
Then during his second State of the Nation Address, President Duterte demanded from the United States the return of the bells of Balangiga which their troops appropriated as spoils of war.
The return of the bells signify an important period in the long, complicated history of Philippine-American relations. In a way, the bells encapsulate this relationship. It was forged in war strengthened by peace and complicated by shifting global dynamics.
It is also significant that the bells are being returned at a time when the Philippines under the Duterte administration has undertaken a major shift in its foreign policy. It has established cordial relations with non-traditional allies like China and Russia while maintaining its ties with the US.
One can look at it that way – at a time when we are asserting our sovereignty in the global stage by reassessing our relations with our former colonial master, one of the symbols of our people’s struggle for independence and sovereignty is being returned to its rightful place.
I hope that the return of the bells would reignite our people’s appreciation of the sacrifice made by our heroes in order to secure our freedom. I hope that the return of the bells would remind our people of the important role of history in determining our present and future.
Balangiga is a clarion call for us to renew our commitment to ensuring a strong, independent Filipino nation with its feet firmly on its historical roots and its eyes set on a bright future.
Finally, the rightful owners of the bells – the people of Balangiga, Samar; the Diocese of Borongan – of which Balangiga is a parish; and the Filipino nation – will receive a sense of historical justice.