VP Binay renews call for return of Balangiga bells

By OVP Media
June 14, 2012

MANILA  –  Vice President Jejomar C. Binay Thursday reiterated his call for the return of the Balangiga bells to the Philippines.

“The Balangiga Bells are a remembrance of the men, women and children of Balangiga who died in our struggle for freedom. They hold a special meaning to Filipinos,” Binay said.

He said that the return of the bells is as an act of goodwill that would further strengthen the longstanding diplomatic relationship of the United States and the Philippines.

On May 3, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stating his opposition of the Bells’ return to the Philippines.

“I strongly oppose any efforts to deconstruct our war memorials that honor our fallen soldiers,” he wrote.

“While we respect the fact that the Bells serve as a war memorial for US soldiers who were killed in Balangiga, I hope that the United States will take into consideration that the Bells are a memorial as well to the many innocent civilians who were murdered in the wake of the indiscriminate retaliatory attack ordered by General Jacob H. Smith,” Binay said in response to the opposition.

In 1901, General Jacob H. Smith issued an order to "kill everyone over the age of ten" and make Samar island "a howling wilderness” after Filipino freedom fighters killed an estimated 48 of his men and wounded another 22.

The Balangiga Bells were then taken by US forces as a war trophy in the aftermath of the Balangiga Massacre in Samar during the Philippine-American War.

The Vice President wrote to United States Ambassador Harry K. Thomas in October last year, expressing optimism that the US Congress will decide favorably on a pending resolution to return the bells.

“Since the Filipino populace, the Wyoming Veterans Council, and the Catholic Church are considered as the major stakeholders in this issue, it would be safe to assume that the people’s voice calls for the return of the Bells to the Philippines,” he said in his letter.

Efforts to return the Bells to the Philippines have started in 1957 when Jesuit historian Father Horacio de la Costa requested the 13th Air Force in San Francisco, California to repatriate the bells.

Meanwhile, the Balangiga Historical Society through the National Historical Institute and the Department of Foreign Affairs initiated formal government efforts in reacquiring the Bells in 1989.