The Balangiga bells are three church bells taken by the United States Army from the town church of Balangiga, Eastern Samar in the Philippines as war booty after reprisals following the Balangiga incident in 1901 during the Philippine-American War. One church bell is in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Red Cloud, their base in South Korea,[1][2] while two others are on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.[3] At least one of the bells had tolled to signal the surprise attack by the Filipinos while the Americans were eating breakfast. The attack claimed the lives of more than forty soldiers of the US garrison posted in the town.
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On September 28, 1901, Filipino freedom fighters from the village of Balangiga ambushed Company C of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment, while they were at breakfast, killing an estimated 48 and wounding 22 of the 78 men of the unit, with only four escaping unhurt. The villagers captured about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. An estimated 20 to 25 of the villagers had died in the fighting, with a similar number of wounded.[4]
In reprisal, General Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a "howling wilderness" and that any Filipino male above ten years of age capable of bearing arms be shot if they refuse to surrender. From the burned-out Catholic town church, the Americans recovered three bells which they took back to the United States as war booty. The 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment, however, maintains that the single bell in their possession was presented to the regiment by villagers when the unit left Balangiga on April 9, 1902.[5] Smith and his primary subordinate, Major Littleton Waller of the United States Marine Corps were both court-martialled for illegal vengeance against the civilian population of Samar. Waller was acquitted of the charges. Smith was found guilty, admonished and retired from service.[6]
Balangiga, which became a parish on September 27, 1859, may have taken four years to raise the funds needed to acquire their first church bell. This is believed to be the large 1863 bell now in Wyoming. It bears what is probably an Augustinian emblem and has a mouth diameter of 31¼ inches and height of 30 inches. The name inscribed on the bell, "R. San Francisco", it is believed, belonged to the parish priest at that time.
The town probably acquired its second bell in 1889. The medium-sized bell, inscribed with the name of Fr. Agustin Delgado in Latin – "Augustin Delcado", is also in Wyoming. It bears a Franciscan emblem and has a mouth diameter of 27¾ inches and height of 27½ inches.
The third and smallest bell may have been acquired in 1895, through the initiative of Fr. Bernardo Aparecio. This is the bell now kept by the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment in Camp Red Cloud, South Korea. Estimates of its size deduce a 23-24 inch height and a mouth diameter of about 20 inches. It also bears the Franciscan emblem.[2]
The bells at F.E. Warren Air Force Base are kept in its Trophy Park, hung from a crescent-shaped monument of brick. A glass case nearby houses the 400-year-old British Falcon cannon that was also taken from the village along with the bells and brought to Wyoming by the 11th Infantry Regiment in 1904.[7] This seven-foot cannon is described in F.E. Warren Air Force Base's fact sheets as a Queen Mary Tudor cannon forged in 1557.[8] The bell in the possession of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment is kept at the 2nd Infantry Division Museum in Camp Red Cloud, Uijeongbu. It had previously been displayed at the unit's Camp Hovey headquarters.[5]
In the mid 90's, during the term of Fidel V. Ramos as Philippine President, attempts were initiated by his government to recover all or a portion of the bells from Bill Clinton's administration.[9][10] 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. For their part the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines hold the position that the bells are inappropriate as trophies of war.[3]
In 2002, the Philippine Senate approved Senate Resolution No. 393, authored by Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., urging the Arroyo administration to undertake formal negotiations with the United States for the return of the bells.[1]
In 2005, the 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.[11] That same year, the Wyoming Veterans’ Commission favored the return of the Filipino-American War relics, however, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal stated that he disagreed with the Commission and opposed returning the bells to the Philippines.[12]
On September 26, 2006, United States Congressman Bob Filner, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Congressman Ed Case co-sponsored House Concurrent Resolution No. 481 urging the President of the United States to authorize the return of the church bells.[13]
In 2007, Napoleón Abueva, the Philippines' National Artist for sculpture, wrote American Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney asking for her help in the bells' recovery.[14]
On October 25, 2007, during the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Senator Manny Villar filed Senate Resolution No. 177, a resolution "expressing the sense of the Senate for the return to the Philippines of the Balangiga Bells which were taken by the US troops from the town of Balangiga, Province of Samar in 1901".[15]
Despite all efforts to recover them, the bells remain under US government control.
A Chicago-based, Philippine-American theater company called The Pintig Cultural Group presented a musical based on the incident, The Bells of Balangiga.[16]
