MikeLigalig.com

By Nathan Layne | Reuters – Fri, Nov 22, 2013


BALANGIGA, Philippines (Reuters) - In the devastated coastal Philippine town of Balangiga, a Roman Catholic belfry with a maroon steeple rises from the rubble, a battered symbol of resistance for a people with mixed feelings about the U.S. military now helping them survive.

After one of the world's most powerful typhoons roared across the central Philippines and killed more than 4,000 people, U.S. military helicopters are flying in aid to desperate regions such as this once-picturesque fishing village of 12,600 people in ravaged Samar province.

It was here 112 years ago that one of the darkest chapters of American colonialism began: the island-wide massacre by U.S. soldiers of thousands of Filipinos, including women and children, in response to the killing of 48 U.S. soldiers by rebels.

After months of bloodshed, animosity has festered for more than a century over the ultimate insult: seizure of the town's church bells by U.S. troops. In recent years, the Philippine government has demanded their return.

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The belfry is among just a few buildings still intact after Super Typhoon Haiyan killed 14 people in Balangiga, where a well-organised evacuation plan kept fatalities low.

"We don't have any animosity against the American people," said Deladia, standing in front of a monument recreating the ambush of U.S. troops. But the bells, he said, are "part of our historical heritage".

Every September 28 the town re-enacts the 1901 Balangiga "incident" in which 48 occupying U.S. soldiers died in an ambush at the old church that triggered retaliation in which U.S. forces razed homes and killed thousands.

The dispute reflects America's long ties to the Philippines, which declared independence from Spain in 1898 with the help of U.S. forces. When the United States went on to colonise the country, a war of independence erupted.

As the United States expands its military and economic interests in Asia to counter a rising China, fewer countries are more strategically important than the Philippines and its string of islands in the busy South China Sea.

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Balangiga Church

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Sestak, a retired Air Force colonel who lives in Laramie, didn’t always feel this way. In fact, while he was serving as the department commander of the Wyoming American Legion 15 years ago, he firmly believed it would be a grave injustice for his nation to acquiesce to Philippine President Fidel Ramos’ request to ship the bells back.

After all, two of the three bells that had been taken were on display at F.E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, as a symbol of the brave Americans who were slaughtered that morning in the previously peaceful town of Balangiga.

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“We’re opposed to dismantling memorials to our fallen comrades,” Sestak told Wyoming officials back in 1997.

He particularly didn’t like a compromise plan that would have allowed both the military base and the Philippines to keep one bell and one replica.

“In 100 years, are we going to dismantle the Vietnam Wall and send half of it to Vietnam?” Sestak asked.

Wyoming’s veterans service organizations unanimously opposed returning the bells, and the state’s congressional delegation agreed. The two bells at F.E. Warren stayed put at Trophy Park on the parade ground.

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Why did the state’s staunchest opponent of returning the bells change his mind? Sestak said as he learned more about what actually happened in Balangiga, it became clear this wasn’t just about the Wyoming memorial.

When the 11th Infantry returned from the Philippines, its first post was Fort D.A. Russell, which later became F.E. Warren AFB. The bells, along with a cannon also taken from Balangiga, were put on display at Fort Russell in 1904.



When the regiment left the fort, though, they left their war booty behind. The 9th Infantry, which had captured a third bell at Balangiga, has taken it to every new post since. This bell, which is believed to be the one that actually signaled Filipinos to attack, is now in a military museum in South Korea.

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With renewed interest from the Philippines in seeking the bells again, the issue is back in the news.

The Catholic church has long maintained that it is the rightful owner of the bells, which it believes should never have become war trophies.

Sestak said the people of Balangiga were poor, but the church managed to raise enough money to have the bells cast.


Balangiga's memorial marking the Balangiga massacre 112 years ago. Picture by JR Espejo

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Would there be dissent now from Wyoming veterans about dismantling the memorial at Warren? Sestak doesn’t think so.

“There are 55,000 veterans in Wyoming,” he noted. “I don’t think there’s 100 of them who know enough about the bells to carry on a conversation about them.”

Kerry Drake is the Star-Tribune opinion editor. Write to him at [email protected].

Copyright 2013 Casper Star-Tribune Online. All rights reserved.

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