Bells of Balangiga Resolution filed in U.S. Congress

By R SONNY SAMPAYAN (USAF-Ret)
United States Special Envoy of the Diocese of Borongan
September 29, 2006

NEW YORK CITY – A historic bi-partisan bill was filed on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 by Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) and cosponsored by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Congressman Ed Case (D-HI). House Concurrent Resolution 481 urge the President of the United States to authorize the return to the people of the Philippines of two church bells that were taken by the United States Army in 1901 from the town of Balangiga on the island of Samar, Philippines, which are currently displayed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.

This action was prompted by the historic acts of the Wyoming Veterans Commission (WVC). An initial meeting took place on December 2004 when R Sonny Sampayan and Erwin “Swede” Huelswede visited the Commissioners in Casper, Wyoming, and requested the church bells be returned. Prior to making a sound judgment decision on March 26, 2005, the Commissioners also heard a presentation of facts compiled by the Balangiga Research Group and presented by Jean Wall, the daughter of Private Gamlin, the first soldier to be struck during the Balangiga incident.

The Vatican, under the leadership of the late Pope John Paul, II, sent a letter signed by then Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio, to President Bush on November 10, 2003, expressing support. The Apostolic Nuncio wrote, “The return of the Bells would greatly contribute in enhancing and reaffirming the beautiful friendship that exists between the people of the United States of America and of The Philippines.”

The bell(s) were reportedly rung, without permission of the parish priest in Balangiga, to signal an attack on the American garrison. As a consequence, the 11th United States Infantry Regiment, known as the “Wyoming Volunteers”, confiscated the Bells of Balangiga and brought them to United States as war trophies.

The town of Balangiga built a memorial monument that includes the names of Filipinos and Americans who lost their lives in 1901 and that the town honors these war dead each year on 28 September. The Bells of Balangiga, when restored to their original settings, could again ring, after 105 years of muteness, as a symbol of the bond that exists between The Philippines and the United States.