Duterte to push through with visit to Samar for Balangiga bells turnover

President Duterte decided to push through with his visit to Balangiga, Eastern Samar, two hours after it was reported that he decided to skip the turnover of the historic Balangiga bells to its original place on Saturday.

On Wednesday evening, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said that Duterte had to attend to pressing matters that coincided with the scheduled turnover of the historic artifacts to local officials in Eastern Samar.

"Due to the persistent requests from the people of Eastern Samar who look forward to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte personally bringing the Balangiga bells to the town of Balangiga, the President has decided to attend the turnover ceremony of the Balangiga bells to the local officials on Saturday, December 15," he said.

"The President has made changes in his schedule of activities to join the Filipino community in welcoming the return of the bells," he added.

All three Balangiga bells made their way back to the Philippines on Tuesday, almost 17 months after President Duterte publicly

appealed to the US to return the bells during his second State of the Nation Address last year. The President was supposed to lead the turnover on Tuesday but skipped the said event.

According to Panelo, while Duterte considers his appearance in the said event an added attraction, the President thinks that the fact that the bells are finally home after 117 years is more important.

"[H]e gives more importance to the fact that after 117 years, the Balangiga bells, which symbolize the bravery and patriotism of the Filipinos who refused to be subjugated by a foreign power and shed blood to assert the sovereignty of our country, have been returned to their origins where they properly belong. The bells are now indeed home," Panelo said.

Panelo said that descendants of the victims of the war 117 years ago cherish the return of the bells which he described as a message to the rest of the world.

"The descendants of those who perished in one of the bloodiest and tragic consequences of the Filipino-American war rightfully cherish the coming home of a part of our national heritage and the Filipino nation join them in rejoicing the historic event," he noted.

"As the Balangiga Bells resume their ringing after a silence of more than a century, the booming sounds that will come out of them will resonate around the world with the sterling message that foreign domination nor outside intrusion on its sovereignty has no place in this part of the world," he added.

Rejected

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Borongan in Eastern Samar has rejected the proposal to keep one of the three Balangiga Bells in Manila.

Bishop Crispin Varquez and the clergy of the diocese said such a transfer is a disrespectful mangling of history and the right of the Catholic faithful of Balangiga to their private property.

They said the bells are “sacramentals” and “sacred artifacts” that call the faithful to prayer and worship.

“But they especially call them to the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the highest form of prayer and worship for Catholics. Therefore, they belong in the Church, not in a museum,” they said in a CBCP News post.

Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier filed Resolution No. 965 that sought to transfer one of the bells to the National Museum in Manila.

The diocese said although they recognize the national significance of the bells and they likewise desire that they be correctly appreciated by all Filipinos, in particular by the young and also by the future generations, such proposal “does violence to history and the sacred character and purpose of the Balangiga Bells.”

“It must be rejected,” they said. “The Balangiga Encounter at which the bells played a role happened in Balangiga. It is only right that they be returned to Balangiga and stay in Balangiga,” they added.

The Balangiga bells should be right where they belong – to the bell tower of the Parish Church of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, in Balangiga, Eastern Samar.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone on Thursday rejected the proposed transfer of one of the three Balangiga Bells to the National Museum in Manila.

Evardone, chairman of the House Committee on Public Information, said the position of the Catholic Church on the issue should be respected.

"I am against the proposal to put one of the Balangiga Bells in the National Museum. The bells should be placed in the rightful place where they belong – the bell tower in Balangiga church. The bells are religious artifacts more than a museum items," Evardone said.

On September 28, 1901, Filipino freedom fighters from Balangiga, Eastern Samar ambushed members of Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment who were having breakfast, killing an estimated 48 and wounding 22 of the 78 men of the unit, with only four escaping unhurt. From the burned-out Catholic town church, the Americans looted three bells which they took back to the US as war booty.