The Balangiga bells (; ; ) are three church bells that were taken by the United States Army from the Church of San Lorenzo de Martir in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, Philippines, as war trophies after reprisals following the Balangiga massacre in 1901 during the Philippine–American War. One church bell was in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Red Cloud, their base in South Korea, while two others were on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
People representing the Catholic Church in the Philippines, the Philippine government, and the residents of Balangiga had sought to recover the bells since the late 1950s, but their efforts were met with frustration for decades. Progress in negotiations was made in 2018, and the bells finally returned to the Philippines on December 11, 2018, after 117 years.
History
The Balangiga church was dedicated in 1854 to Roman martyr San Lorenzo, and in 1863, Fr. Cristobal Mirrales, a Jesuit Missionary maybe an Architect too, rebuilt the Balangiga Church consisting of Haligues o Poste de Madera, with four towers inside a quadrangle or fort, and that the church bell as told took four years probably by raising fund to acquire it. It was cast around 1853 and bears the Franciscan coat of arms. It has a mouth diameter of inches and height of . The following inscription appears on this bell: "R. San Francisco Año El 1853" ("R. San Francisco The Year 1853"). R. San Francisco could have been the parish priest at that time, or the term may represent Religioso de San Francisco, a reference to the name of the religious order of Franciscans.
The second bell was cast around 1889 with a mouth diameter of and height of . The town acquired it in 1889 through the initiative of Fr. Agustín Delgado, whose name is inscribed on it. The following inscription appears on this bell: "Se Refundió Siendo Cura Parroco El M.R.P.F Agustín Delgado Año 1889". The bells were referred to as campanas colgantes in Spanish, meaning "hanging bells". These are usually hung from a beam and are rung using a rope attached to the clapper.
The third and smallest bell may have been acquired in 1895 through the initiative of Fr. Bernardo Aparicio. Estimates of its size deduce a to height and a mouth diameter of about . It bears the Franciscan emblem. The following inscription appears on this bell: "Se Refundio Siendo Parroco P. Bernardo Aparicio Año 1895". Bells of this type are known as esquila (small bell) or Campana de vuelo, literally a "flight bell" used to sound warning in times of peril. The Spanish word refundió means that the bell had been recast from scrap bronze.
Balangiga massacre
On September 28, 1901, Philippine Republican Army soldiers, and irregular military forces and/or the Pulahan from Balangiga and nearby towns ambushed Company C of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment while they were at breakfast, killing 48 and wounding 22 of the 78 men of the unit, with only four escaping unhurt and four missing in action. The villagers captured about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. An estimated 20 to 25 of them died in the fighting, with a similar number of wounded.
In reprisal, General Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a "howling wilderness" and that they shoot any Filipino male above ten years of age who was capable of bearing arms. This was the most widespread killing of Filipino civilians in the entire duration of the war. The aftermath of the massacre also led to the increased use of the water cure in Samar. The American soldiers seized three church bells from the town church and moved them back to the United States as war trophies. The 9th Infantry Regiment maintained that the single bell in their possession was presented to the regiment by villagers when the unit left Balangiga on April 9, 1902. The bell had been actually given to them by the 11th Infantry Regiment, which had taken all three bells when they left Balangiga for Tacloban on October 18, 1901.
Smith and his primary subordinate, Major Littleton Waller of the United States Marine Corps, were both court-martialled for war crimes against the civilian population of Samar. Waller was charged specifically of tying a local resident to a tree and shooting bullets into their body for three straight days, before finally killing them on the fourth. Waller was acquitted of the charges. Smith was found guilty, admonished and retired from service, but charges were dropped shortly after. He was later hailed as a war hero.
Removal to the United States After the Balangiga massacre, the town was recaptured on September 29, 1901, by 55 men of Company G, 9th Infantry. That unit departed the town the same day and was replaced by 132 men from Companies K and L of the 11th Infantry Regiment which garrisoned the town until relieved on October 18, 1901. When the 11th Infantry departed, they took the bells removed from the burned-down Balangiga church and a cannon from the plaza in front of the church. The bells were taken because one had been used by the Filipinos to signal the attack on Company C, 9th Infantry and because the metal could have been turned into weapons such as cannons and bayonets. All three bells remained under the charge of quartermaster Captain Robert Alexander at their Tacloban headquarters.
The small signal bell was the bell that signaled the attack against American troops by the Filipinos in the Balangiga massacre. The 11th Infantry gave it to the 9th Infantry Regiment at their headquarters in Calbayog a few months before the 9th Infantry's departure for home. They arrived in San Francisco on June 27, 1902. The unit was returned to its old Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, New York where they built a brick pedestal to display it. In 1928, it was moved to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. The bell was later kept at the 2nd Infantry Division Museum in Camp Red Cloud, Uijeongbu, South Korea. It had previously been displayed at the unit's Camp Hovey headquarters.
The 11th Infantry left the Philippines in February 1904 taking the two larger bells with them and redeployed to Fort D.A. Russell in Wyoming on March 23, 1904. On May 16, 1905, the Cheyenne Daily Leader reported that the cannon had been mounted on the parade ground near the flagpole along with other relics from the Philippines "to include the famous bell which gave the signal for the massacre of a whole company. Two large bells three feet tall and a seven-foot cannon were proudly displayed in front of the flagpole on the parade ground of the fort."
A sign was installed over one of the bells:
The sign erroneously credited units of the 11th Infantry with being the first to reach Balangiga after the battle, but it was changed in 1911 giving proper credit to Company G, 9th Infantry for recapturing Balangiga. The 11th Infantry reposted to Texas in 1913, leaving the two large bells behind.
In 1927, Fort D.A. Russell was renamed Fort Francis E. Warren. The Army left Fort Francis E. Warren in 1941, again leaving the bells where they were. On October 7, 1949, the former Army base became Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, and the bells became artefacts in the collection of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. In 1967, Colonel Robert J. Hill, commander of the 90th Missile Wing, had a curved red brick wall constructed in the F. E. Warren AFB trophy park for the bells, with a bronze plaque on the wall between them telling the story of the massacre at Balangiga.
In 1987, a faint inscription was visible on the back of both bells, reading:
In 1979, it was discovered that a bronze cannon that was also taken from Balangiga had been cast in London in 1557 and bore the monogram of Mary I of England. , a glass case housed the bells along with the 400-year-old Falcon cannon.
Recovery attempts On December 23, 1935, Eugenio Daza, a leader in the Balangiga Encounter, gave a sworn statement detailing the Balangiga Encounter and the surrounding events, entitled "Balangiga su Historia en la Revolucion el 28 de Septiembre la 1901". Daza's memoir ended with a plea for the return of the bells: "...one of the bells which were rung on that memorable day of the heroic battle, was taken by the Americans to the United States. Could we secure its return? That depends on the patriotism of our leaders and the good will of the American people"In November 1957, Fr. Horacio de la Costa of the Department of History at the Ateneo de Manila University wrote a letter to the Thirteenth Air Force's command historian Chip Wards at Clark Air Force Base stating that the bells belonged to the Franciscans and that they should be returned to the Philippines. The following year, a group of American Franciscans based in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental again wrote to Wards, stating that the two large bells were Franciscan.
In 1987, Tomas Gomez III, then serving as Consul General of the Philippine Consulate in Honolulu, Hawaii received correspondence from John Witeck concerning the bells. Walter Kundis, a friend of Witeck's, had discovered the bells at the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Witeck also wrote to Hawaii Senator Spark Matsunaga, seeking his assistance in having the bells returned to the Philippines. Senator Matsunaga in turn wrote to the Department of the Air Force, but received a negative reply.
The administration of Philippine President Fidel Ramos initiated attempts to recover one or more of the bells from Bill Clinton's administration in the mid-1990s. In 1994, during a one-on-one between Ramos and Clinton in the Philippines, Clinton offered to return the Balangiga Bells to the Philippines "in the spirit of fair play." However, Roy Daza, a representative of Ramos sent to the U.S. on the matter of the bells, was informed that Clinton's offer was considered "illegal" in some State Department circles. The United States government has been adamant that the bells are US government property, that it would take an Act of Congress to return them, and that the Catholic Church has no say in the matter. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines hold the position that the bells are inappropriate as trophies of war. In 1998, Ramos proposed casting two new bells, then having each country keep an original and a duplicate. Philippine Ambassador to the United States Raul Rabe visited Cheyenne, Wyoming twice, trying to win support for this proposal. However, he was not successful.
In 2002, the Philippine Senate approved Senate Resolution No. 393, authored by Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and urging the Arroyo administration to undertake formal negotiations with the United States for the return of the bells. In 2005, Bishop of Borongan, Samar, Bishop Leonardo Medroso, and Balangiga parish priest Saturnino Obzunar wrote an open letter addressed to President George W. Bush, the United States Congress, and the Helsinki Commission requesting them to facilitate the return of the bells. That same year, the Wyoming Veterans' Commission favored the return of the Filipino-American War relics, but Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal stated that he disagreed with the Commission and opposed returning the bells. On January 13, 2005, Congressman Bob Filner introduced H.Res.313 urging the President to authorize the transfer of ownership of one of the bells to the people of the Philippines. The resolution died on January 3, 2007, with the adjournment of Congress. On September 26, 2006, Congressmen Bob Filner, Dana Rohrabacher, and Ed Case co-sponsored House Concurrent Resolution No. 481 urging the President to authorize the return of the church bells, but it died on January 3, 2009, with the adjournment of Congress.