"The looted bells needed to be returned if we were to cut that bondage and move on."
"The looted bells needed to be returned if we were to cut that bondage and move on."
For the second time after 117 years, the bells of Balangiga are ringing again.
Last Monday, at dawn on the second day of the annual nine-day Misa de Gallo, the three bells rang proudly, calling on the Balangiga faithful to church.
It was a sight to behold if we go by the accounts of those who posted the scene for posterity. And for the history buffs, it was a scene popping out of old when the same bells rang summoning the faithful to midnight mass and signaling the uprising of a rag tag group of proud Samarenos against an American occupation force then holding fort at the town center.
That they were able to capture the town center and raise the banner of freedom in that small town so incensed the then-commanding general of the American occupation forces in that part of the country that he ordered the killing of all males aged 10 years and above and turn Samar into a "howling wilderness." In the end, even children and women were murdered that the town, in one account, looked like a zombie zone. So brutal and unprecedented was the campaign launched by US General John "Howling Wilderness" Smith it has since assumed historical significance similar to other such atrocities as the Rape of Nanking during World War II, My Lai during the Vietnam War and more recently the various “ethnic cleansing” incidents during the Balkan Wars. What made the Balangiga massacres doubly abominable was the looting of the town by the occupying forces with their soldiers carting away the three bells which the Americans obviously wanted badly to serve as a warning to any Philippine freedom fighter at that time that they will be stripped to the ground like animals.
Which is why the return of the bells and their ringing for the annual Misa de Gallo masses in the quaint town of Balangiga has gained such prominence in the annals of the country's continuing struggle as an independent, democratic member of the family of nations. That it was finally returned during the incumbency of President Duterte makes it truly significant given his vow to chart an independent "friends to all, foe to none" foreign policy.
For most of our post-World War II history, the return of the bells has always been part of our "talking points," so to speak, with every American administration. Although quite insignificant in the view of a number of sectors particularly those who have always clung to the coat tails of the United States, the bells' return in whatever way possible struck at the heart strings of every Filipino who had a sense of nationhood. It was, in a very real sense, a symbol of the bondage which engulfed this benighted land for centuries made even more distressing by the unmitigated atrocities perpetrated by the Americans in their pacification campaign which for decades the US and its brown brothers wanted erased from the books. The looted bells needed to be returned if we were to cut that bondage and move on.
It was clear that that sense of nationhood, that appreciation of our history as a people and, of necessity, the need to complete the story of America in the Philippines President Duterte articulated from day one of his assumption in office. And that has been an oft-repeated refrain over the past two and a half years of his administration as he pursued his independent foreign policy. Given his temperament, it is no accident that up to now toward the middle of his six-year term, President Duterte has constantly ignored calls for him to finally make a state visit to the United States as has been customary for most presidents before him. He has visited China, Russia and Japan among the Big Powers—but not America. In all likelihood, this nonchalance must have registered deeply in the calculation for the return of the bells. He tweaked them in the right place at the right time.
But he did not take credit for it. Unlike others in the political class who would grab at anything just to append it to their inglorious careers, this President shied away from the limelight. He himself emphasized, when the return was about to happen, that this was a singular achievement of the entire nation and of our people—not of him or his administration alone. That remark endeared him even more to a grateful nation that not even that ruckus about the alleged inconsiderate handling of some members of the clergy during the turn over ceremony in Balangiga did not detract people from the warm welcome he got when he finally landed in Samar.
At this point, no matter how hard the critics try to downgrade President Duterte's role in bringing back this symbol of our nation's struggles to break free from the clutches of colonial rule, they will never succeed. He has shown his mettle in dealing with the most powerful country in the world with the bells' return. If he can work that out, there is no reason why he cannot raise the flag in our relations with the nations of the world. That's that.
