Balangiga bells to peal once again on December 15
The townsfolk of Balangiga in Eastern Samar will hear the first ringing of the Balangiga bells, which are returning after 117 years, on Saturday, December 15.
Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, media director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and head of the Balangiga committee of Borongan said, the historic church bells will peal once again following its
return during a Thanksgiving Mass at 4 p.m. at the St. Lawrence Parish, also known as the Balangiga Church.
President Rodrigo Duterte, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenza, Borongan Bishop Crispin Varquez, and CBCP president Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles are expected to attend the turn over ceremonies on Saturday.
The three Balangiga bells arrived in the country Tuesday at around 10:35 a.m. at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City aboard a US Air Force C-130.
“A film viewing on the events surrounding the bells will be held as well as some minutes of silence for the eternal repose of the casualties in 1901,” Quitorio said over Church-run Radio Veritas.
Bishop Varquez earlier expressed his gratitude to all those who worked for the return of the bells.
Every year on September 29, as a tribute to the Filipinos who died in the encounter, the people of Eastern Samar observe the Balangiga Encounter with a reenactment of the events that transpired in 1901.