Wyoming veterans opt to return Samar bells

The historic Balangiga bells displayed at Warren Air Force in Wyoming may be returned to its former Samar Church if the Wyoming Veterans Commission have their way. Way back on April 26, 1998, the people of Samar built a P4 million belfry hoping that the Americans would return the bells in time for the country’s June 12 Centennial.

The Battle of Balangiga is remembered as the "worst single defeat" of the US military in the Philippines. The people of Balangiga attacked the American troops while they were eating breakfast at their quarters in the convent and killed 45 soldiers and 3 officers. It was the ringing of the church bells that gave the signal to attack.

As a result, Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith issued the following orders:

"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."

"I want to know the limit of age to respect, sir," his officer asked.

"Ten years," Gen. Smith said.

"Persons of ten years and older are those designated as being capable of bearing arms?"

"Yes."

The important thing to remember is that Filipinos and Americans ended up as friends and allies in Bataan and Corregidor with the Americans later liberating the Philippines from the Japanese.

Coincidences, they say, are sometimes God’s way of emphasizing events. Can it be sheer coincidence that only a few days ago, a 92-year Filipino poet, Hilario Zialcita y Legarda launched his bilingual book – Spanish and English – The Manila Galleon and other poems that deal with love, history, legend and fantasy and one of the poems is entitled Echoes of Balangiga. Below are excerps from said poem:

The bells of Balangiga
no longer ring nor toll;
but there remains of its echoes
much history to recall.
In the turbulent years
of violent revolution,
American troops there
maintained their garrison.
There the guerilla fighters,
without revealing themselves,
observed them most fully
planning to conquer them
Concealing many bolos,
crude weapons with which to fight
in that cold dawn hour
when a cock began to crow.
Thus it was that with great success
the powerful invasion took place –
the killing and the bloodshed,
a lamentable operation.
No longer ring the bells
for they are there no more. . .
though feeble echoes still remain,
a recollection of the clamor. . .
Of the tragic encounters
in the struggle for nationhood
for the freedom longed for,
and truly, for the Revolution.
Restore the Balangiga bells to the church where they belonged!