The whole country was watching as President Rodrigo Duterte decided last year to put Sung Kim, the ambassador of the United States to the Philippines, on the spot.
If there is one thing Filipinos know the rural town of Balangiga for,
that is the so-called "massacre" that also involved three church bells
ending up in the US's possession.
"Give us back those Balangiga bells," Duterte bellowed from the rostrum. "They are ours."
The camera zoomed in on Kim, who was listening from the gallery of Congress' plenary hall. The US ambassador kept a straight face as the hall burst in applause
On Tuesday Dec 11,2018, almost 17 months since that public address and 117 years since US troops took the bells from the belfry of a burning town, the Balangiga bells will arrive back in the Philippines
By "Balangiga massacre", the US refers to one incident - the killing
of dozens of its soldiers - and the Philippines to another that followed
- a violent counterattack by US forces that left at least hundreds dead
or starving.
In a clandestine attack on September 28, 1901, about 500 Filipinos armed with machetes swooped down on US soldiers having breakfast at their garrison in Balangiga. The unsuspecting soldiers had left their rifles at the barracks.
The townspeople were angry at the colonisers for arresting their men and forcing them to work at camps.
The "massacre" of the US soldiers began with the tolling of the town's church bells. Forty-eight of the 78 US soldiers were killed, while those who survived scurried to the coast and boarded boats to safety
The following day, fresh US troops returned to Balangiga with orders to raze the town. General Jacob Smith told his soldiers it would please him if they killed and burned and took no prisoners, urging them to leave the place a "howling wilderness"
The scorched-earth campaign eventually spread to the entire province of Samar, with local men being killed and women and children being starved. Historians have put the Filipino death toll between hundreds to tens of thousands.
Adding to the "massacre" of the Filipinos, the US soldiers looted the church in Balangiga and carried off its bells as war trophies. Two of the bells wound up in a monument at an air force base in the US state of Wyoming; the third, a smaller one, at a US military facility in South Korea
After gaining independence from the US in 1946, the Philippines made constant efforts at getting the bells back from the US government, to no avail.
"At this point, allow me to take a step back in
time, in 1901," Duterte said, as his televised state of the nation
address in July 2017 took a surprise turn towards the US colonisation of
the Philippines
"In 1901, there was known as Balangiga," the
Philippine president continued - and the audience knew right away where
he was heading.
"Give us back those Balangiga bells," Duterte bellowed from the rostrum. "They are ours."
The camera zoomed in on Kim, who was listening from the gallery of Congress' plenary hall. The US ambassador kept a straight face as the hall burst in applause
On Tuesday Dec 11,2018, almost 17 months since that public address and 117 years since US troops took the bells from the belfry of a burning town, the Balangiga bells will arrive back in the Philippines
In a clandestine attack on September 28, 1901, about 500 Filipinos armed with machetes swooped down on US soldiers having breakfast at their garrison in Balangiga. The unsuspecting soldiers had left their rifles at the barracks.
The townspeople were angry at the colonisers for arresting their men and forcing them to work at camps.
The "massacre" of the US soldiers began with the tolling of the town's church bells. Forty-eight of the 78 US soldiers were killed, while those who survived scurried to the coast and boarded boats to safety
The following day, fresh US troops returned to Balangiga with orders to raze the town. General Jacob Smith told his soldiers it would please him if they killed and burned and took no prisoners, urging them to leave the place a "howling wilderness"
The scorched-earth campaign eventually spread to the entire province of Samar, with local men being killed and women and children being starved. Historians have put the Filipino death toll between hundreds to tens of thousands.
Adding to the "massacre" of the Filipinos, the US soldiers looted the church in Balangiga and carried off its bells as war trophies. Two of the bells wound up in a monument at an air force base in the US state of Wyoming; the third, a smaller one, at a US military facility in South Korea
After gaining independence from the US in 1946, the Philippines made constant efforts at getting the bells back from the US government, to no avail.
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