Bells of Balangiga Take Toll on Ties

When the Philippines celebrates the centennial of its independence from Spain on June 12, two of its most symbolic artifacts--much to the nation’s chagrin--will be on display at a military base in Wyoming.

The bells of Balangiga are, in effect, war booty. They were taken to what is now Francis E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne after a U.S. garrison in the Philippines was decimated in 1901 by insurgents. In retaliation, U.S. soldiers killed most Balangiga residents over the age of 10 in a massacre that claimed as many as 5,000 lives.

The Philippines has been trying to get the cast-iron Spanish colonial bells back for eight years. They are to Filipinos what the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is to Americans--an emblem of heroism and hard-won freedom.

But some U.S. veterans groups say returning the bells would be tantamount to dishonoring their comrades who fought in foreign wars.

Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos has personally asked President Clinton twice to help secure their return, most recently in Washington last month. Ramos’ solution: Cast two new bells, and each nation would keep an original and a duplicate. Clinton was said to be supportive.

“By sharing the bells,” said Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, “we share the agonies they represent, and then we can close this chapter of our history.”

Nothing doing, said Wyoming’s American Legion in a unanimous vote. The bells are right where they belong, in Trophy Park at the base where Indian fighters of the U.S. Army were once posted.

Raul Rabe, the Philippine ambassador to the United States, has twice visited Cheyenne and addressed the local Chamber of Commerce, trying to win sympathy.

The two countries may disagree on rights to the 18-inch-tall bells, one made in 1863, the other in 1896, and each stamped with the coat of arms of Franciscan missionaries. But the basic facts of how they became prized are not in dispute.

The United States annexed the Philippines in 1898, following the Spanish-American War. Three years later, 74 soldiers from Company C of the 9th Infantry arrived in Balangiga, about 380 miles southeast of Manila on Samar island, to pacify the region. They turned the town hall into barracks and the convent into officers’ quarters.

On Saturday, Sept. 27, 1901, guerrillas disguised as women entered the town, carrying coffins they said held the bodies of children killed by cholera.

At 6:20 the following morning, Balangiga’s two church bells--the same ones that now hang in Wyoming--mysteriously started tolling. It was the guerrillas’ signal to attack. The insurgents tore off their dresses, pulled machetes from the coffins and killed 45 Americans and wounded 22.

Revenge was swift. Brig. Gen. Jacob “Hell-Roaring Jake” Smith told a subordinate: “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me.”

Smith was later court-martialed and cashiered.