#balangiga

" T h e   B e l l s "

The Balangiga War in the Original World's (Emilio's) perspective  and in the Parallel Exchange World's (Andres') perspective

The Bells of Balangiga: A Second Look at History

As President Rodrigo Duterte, in his second State of the Nation Address delivered last Monday, mentioned anew another American atrocity not widely known in Philippine history books, we come again to confront and learn of this controversial event that shaped our history. What are the Balangiga Bells? Why must these bells be returned?

Let’s go back to 1901. The Philippine-American War was almost over. The American capture of President Emilio Aguinaldo in March brought shockwaves to the Filipino forces fighting the Americans. It ended any large-scale organized resistance against the Americans, with the First Philippine Republic effectively capitulated. Surviving Filipino generals and famished, diseased-ridden Filipino soldiers surrendered one by one. Fighting was greatly reduced. To borrow the words of writer Mark Twain, the “eagle has put its talons” on the Philippines.

*Map of the acquired possessions of the United States from Spain, 1901

The Philippines then was administered by the United States both through civilian and military leadership. The civilian American governor-general, William Howard Taft (who in the future would be elected as U.S. President) administered the “pacified” areas in the country, while those still under the state of “rebellion” were under the military governor-general, Arthur MacArthur (the father of Douglas MacArthur). Taft was more conciliatory towards Filipinos that it led to an intense conflict between him and MacArthur. With peace already in arms reach throughout the islands, U.S. Secretary of War, Elihu Root, saw this as an opportunity to make a change in bureaucracy. He relieved MacArthur and gave the military governor-general position to Adna Chaffee, whose record boasted an administrative experience during the Boxer Rebellion in China. Chaffee was placed there in the hopes that the relationship between civilian and military administrations be mended. But it was bound to fail.

*Photo of William Howard Taft riding a carabao (1904), from the U.S. Army Military History Institute.

This was because all American military governors assigned to the Philippines, including Chaffee, seemed to have a low regard on Filipinos (a prevalent view among the American public, esp. in the army), seen to be unruly and in need of force and discipline to introduce to them democracy and “civilization.” Furthermore, many of them in the ranks fought against the indigenous Native Americans during the U.S. westward expansion, hence their condescending and racist view on non-whites. Taft vehemently disagreed with Chaffee’s policies and the way the army dealt with Filipinos. Taft further infuriated the army by inviting some Filipino leaders to the table.

*Adna Chaffee (1842-1914), Military Governor-General of the Philippine Islands from July 1901 to October 1902.

The American media had also been covering the Philippine-American War, but only rarely getting statements and interviews from the First Philippine Republic at its heyday. Many were clearly biased for U.S. interventionism but a few were for Filipinos, thanks to the exposes and clamor made by the Anti-Imperialist League in the U.S. However, the American military had imposed a news blackout to the media hence most of the media’s information were filtered and only relayed to them by the military. Indeed, Chaffee himself told journalist Joseph Ohl: 

“If you should hear of a few Filipinos more or less being put away, don’t grow too sentimental over it.”

As I mentioned, Chaffee had an extensive military experience in China. And there, under Chaffee were the “C” Company of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment. The contingent helped in the capture of Manila from the Spanish in 1898, and were also sent to China to help rescue foreign nationals from the Boxer Rebellion. By 1901, they were assigned to a small town in Samar, called Balangiga, and having arrived there in August, associated themselves with the locals.

*Photo of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment enjoying a cockfight somewhere in the Philippines, circa 1901, from Arnaldo Dumindin. 

Historian Rolando Borrinaga tells the story:

“Tensions rose when on September 22, at a tuba store, two drunken American soldiers tried to molest the girl tending the store. The girl was rescued by her two brothers, who mauled the soldiers. In retaliation, the Company Commander, Capt. Thomas W. Connell,  West Point class of 1894, rounded up 143 male residents for forced labor to clean up the town in preparation for an official visit by his superior officers. They were detained overnight without food under two conical Sibley tents in the town plaza, each of which could only accommodate 16 persons; 78 of the detainees remained the next morning, after 65 others were released due to age and physical infirmity. Finally, Connell ordered the confiscation from their houses of all sharp bolos, and the confiscation and destruction of stored rice. Feeling aggrieved, the townspeople plotted to attack the U.S. Army garrison.”

Was the mauling of the American soldiers justified? Let us put things in perspective. This injustice of molesting a girl were, rightly put, distasteful to the brothers who only defended the girl’s honor. But with the excessive punishment on the men of the town after the incident, it was like rubbing salt on the wound. One must remember that Filipinos at the turn of the century had their own functioning government until the U.S. wrested control by force. With full attributes of a legitimate State, the First Philippine Republic had its own three branches of government, a constitution, a territory administered from the capital city of Malolos, complete with its own army and ranks. But the U.S. subjugated this government, captured its president, called the Filipino army as rebels. Add the violation of the girl’s womanhood, and the excessive punishment endured by the 143 Balangiga men. These were, rightly put, unjust and unforgivable in the eyes of the townspeople. So the people hatched a plan.

On the Friday of September 27, 1901, it was the town church’s anniversary and fiesta. Various people from nearby towns came. Since the Americans were already informed they never noticed anything out of the ordinary. In the afternoon, there was an afternoon procession of at least 50 people, most of whom were women. The 6 men carried a statue of the interred Christ. Turned out that the women in the procession were in fact men disguising themselves as women. In the novena at night, the cross-dressed men and other conspirators prayed for the success of their plan. Women and children were already leaving the town after midnight, and the American troops didn’t notice.

In the early morning of the 28th, 6:00 AM, the contingent assembled at the town plaza. A few moments later they went back to their barracks and tents focused on breakfast. Valeriano Abanador, the leader of the conspiracy and the police chief of the town, were with the Americans when he suddenly grabbed a gun and shouted, shooting the gun and hitting one soldier. A second later, the bells of the Balangiga Church was suddenly rung, signaling the simultaneous surprise attack of the men of the town on the contingent. From the convent to the barracks, the Americans were hacked to death by bolos, while a few American soldiers shot Filipinos with considerable heavy casualties. Out of the 74 American soldiers, 34 survived, 8 of whom died of wounds. Of the unnumbered Balangiga men who took part in the attack, only 28 were killed. The American survivors fled to Basey, Samar and Tolosa, Leyte through 5 boats (2 of which capsized). Some of the townspeople returned to bury their dead, only to leave the town again deserted.

The Company G of the same contingent, from Tacloban went to Balangiga and saw fate of Company C. They burned the town and everything in it, including the church, and took the three bells of Balangiga with them.

*Survivors of the Balangiga massacre with a Balangiga Bell, in Calbayog, Samar (April 1902)

Broadsheets in the United States were filled with the headlines of what happened at Balangiga. The American media called it a “massacre” and was dubbed as one of the U.S. Army’s greatest defeats. With hurting pride, Military Governor-General Chaffee was fuming mad. In the press conference, Chaffee told the media: “the situation calls for shot, shells and bayonets as the natives are not to be trusted.” He later told his officers “to give the Filipinos ‘bayonet rule’ for years to come,” concurring with U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s instructions to implement, “in no unmistakable terms… most stern measures to pacify Samar.” Chaffee and other generals also told the media that it was the work of the unsurrendered Filipino General Vicente Lukban.

*Portrait of General Jacob Smith (1840-1918), the infamous American general who commanded to make Samar “a howling wilderness.” 

Chaffee relieved Brig. Gen. Robert Hughes and replaced him with Gen. Jacob Smith on Samar. Smith was the same cavalryman involved in the massacre of the Sioux Native Americans at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1899. In retaliation to the Balangiga incident and receiving instructions from Chaffee, Smith ordered Marines under his command to “kill and burn”-- “kill everyone over the age of ten,” and burn every town that are capable of resistance. Smith told Marine Corps Major Littleton Waller that “I want no prisoners” and turn Samar into “a howling wilderness.” He further cited some outdated General Orders used in the American Civil War. Smith also issued Circular No. 6 on December 24, 1901, which states that:

Every native, whether in arms or living in the pueblos or barrios, will be regarded and treated as an enemy until he has conclusively shown that he is a friend.

Smith’s orders resulted in a massacre of Filipinos in Samar by the thousands. Many who were not killed were put in protective zones, which by their function, were concentration camps where more Filipinos died of starvation. But it did little to slow down the guerrilla warfare of the remnant Filipino army under Lukban. The death toll was so astounding that it caught the American Media, and the American public were outraged. 

*From the New York Evening Journal, 1901: “Kill Every One Over Ten.”

*The Daily Journal, issue April 17, 1902, from the Phil-Am War website of Arnaldo Dumindin.

The U.S. Congress led a closed committee hearing on the allegations on the military led by Sen. Cabot Lodge. However, this only led to the acquittal of Waller, who revealed Smith’s secret orders, and Smith’s arrest, court-martial, and conviction. The punishment was too light. And the issue, broadly campaigned at by the civilian led Anti-Imperialist League in the United States, were forgotten due to the more pressing issues of the congressional elections the following year. But more atrocities were committed in Mindanao, in Panay, and in some parts of Luzon, hence some pockets of Filipino resistance persisted until 1908.

*Photo of the two Balangiga bells in Photo caption states, “War trophies captured in Philippines by U.S. troops, exhibited at FRDA Russel, Wyo.”, courtesy of Wikimedia.

As one can see, the Balangiga episode does not only invoke a colonizer’s past injustice which have yet to be resolved, but also a military that, if unchecked, was prone to abuse civilians, seen in racist lens as subhuman. 

The Philippine President, while working on the return of the bells that are rightfully ours, should not use this historical tragedy for his own political expedience in a SONA to deflect legitimate international criticism (an off-topic on a SONA, really, esp. when it should have been a report of the country’s status to the people) but rather, that he should learn from it, with all the nuances that this bells’ history entails--military restraint, human rights, free press, etc. 

Today, the three historic Balangiga Bells are with the United States Armed Forces as a sort of war trophy--the smaller bell is in a museum within Camp Red Cloud, South Korea, and the other larger two are in F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton pushed the U.S. Congress to return the bells to no avail. President Fidel V. Ramos campaigned for the U.S. to return the bells in 1997, but it was ignored.

They must be returned.

*The two Balangiga bells at the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base at Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.A. Photo courtesy of the Committee to Return the Bells. 

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NOT JUST THE BELLS. This image of the Madonna and Child is installed in a side chapel at the Borongan Cathedral. It was taken from the cathedral as war booty by an American soldier at the same time as the Balangiga bells – when Gen. Jacob Smith, enraged by the killing of his men by Filipino guerrillas, ordered the killing of anyone over 10 who were capable of bearing arms. He told his men to reduce Samar into a “howling wilderness.” That they did.

The Balangiga Bells were already set to be returned to the Philippines during the time of President Clinton and in time for the Philippine Centennial celebration.

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, a key official involved in the return of the bells, said Clinton had pledged its return to then President Ramos. US veterans, however, managed to sneak into the Pentagon budget a provision that barred the return of “legitimate spoils of war” without specific legislation. The bells were eventually returned in 2018.

The Madonna and Child, meanwhile, was returned to Borongan on April 23, 1998, in time for the Centennial Celebration of Philippine Independence.