Balangiga town won’t shed tears anymore as bells return after 117 years

Nemesio Duran, who claims his grandfather was the last man who rang the Balangiga bells, kisses them upon their return to the Philippines on Tuesday, December 11, 2018, after 117 years in a US military camp. Danny Pata

The people of Balangiga, Eastern Samar won't shed tears anymore now that the Balangiga bells, the war mementos taken by the Americans in 1901, are home after 117 years.

These were the sentiments of Carmen Abayan and Nemesio Duran, descendants of those who were involved in the September 1901 Balangiga attack wherein Filipino guerillas were able to kill 48 American soldiers in an ambush of the 9th US Infantry Regiment during the war.

The Americans avenged their defeat then by razing Eastern Samar towns and sending males aged 10 years and above to prison. The Americans, however, later fought side-by-side with Filipino soldiers to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation in 1945.

“The return of the bells is very important because we are shedding a tear every year when we commemorate the Balangiga encounter. Now, it (commemoration) will be about moving forward, peace, harmony, for our town and country,” Abayan, whose anscestor was then Balangiga Mayor Pedro Abayan who is regarded as one of the brains of the Filipino guerillas’ attack, told GMA News Online.

“This is a new chapter of reconciliation, friendship. For so many years, we have been reenacting the Balangiga encounter and our emotions get fired up. With the return of the bells, we can now consider the past as the past,” Abayan added.

US Embassy in Manila’s spokesperson Molly Koscina earlier said that two of the three bells—the ones previously in a Wyoming war memorial and placed in an open air set-up—were even refurbished in Pennsylvania before it was brought home to Manila before noon on Tuesday since the bells were affected by weather conditions.

The third Balangiga bell, which was in a US facility in South Korea, was not refurbished since it was stored indoors and thus, was protected from the elements.

The three Balangiga bells, transported via a US Air Force C-130 plane, were turned over by the US Department of Defense to their Philippine counterparts on Tuesday morning. The bells will then be turned over by the Philippine Defense department to the Archdiocese of Balangiga in Eastern Samar on December 14 or 15.

Abayan said that the return of the bells would allow descendants like them to focus on honoring the heroism of their ancestors rather than feeling pained.

Nemesio Duran, on the other hand, could not explain his happiness over the return of the bells—an initiative that he has been pushing for for decades.

“We have been pushing for this since 1957. My feeling is indescribable,” Duran, whose grandfather was the one who rang the bell that signaled the Filipino guerillas’ attack on US forces, added. — MDM, GMA News