Bells of Balangiga

Americans have their Liberty Bell. As a symbol of their fight for independence from the British it embodies the brave freedom-loving spirit of their forefathers. It’s only a bell, not worth much in dollar terms, but one can imagine what it would do to the nation’s pride if it was somehow held in foreign soil.

Similarly we have the Bells of Balangiga. These symbolize our honorable and brave resistance to American violation of our sovereignty after we won our war of independence against Spain. Those bells proclaim the Filipinos’ love of freedom and their bravery in the face of overwhelming odds to resist foreign invasion. Those bells should remind Americans they do not have a monopoly of love of country and the bravery to defend it against invaders.

If the Americans, therefore, mean it when they say we are their equals, they should give us back those bells. They belong here because we are no longer a conquered and subject nation. Their continued stay in US soil pays homage to the American soldiers who turned Samar into a “howling wilderness” but disrespects the honor of brave Filipinos who fought to defend their country against a foreign invader.

Return of the bells is actually the least the US can do to atone for the sin of subjugating us. Spain, of course, has a lot more atonement to do. Why so?

We now know that colonization was a pure exercise of might over right. The colonizing powers did not have altruistic motives, as we were taught in school, but came to exploit our resource-rich country.

Spain Christianized us so we would accept their doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings which makes them the voice of God that should be heeded to by all God-believing subjects. If the mission was to Christianize us, why did they have to grab our lands? Why did they put to the sword those who questioned their right to do so?

Then, we fought and won our independence from Spain to assert our nationhood and signify, in no uncertain terms, that we wanted to plot the course of our nation’s destiny ourselves.

So, why did the Americans buy us from Spain? To spread democracy through the barrel of a gun would be grimly ironic. No, they simply needed our rich resources to feed a nascent imperialist bent or they would not have killed so mercilessly the many Filipinos who resisted their intrusion.

For the first time a President is daring to recover the Filipino’s proud, freedom-loving soul that a veneer of Christianity and democracy has not prevented from being sacrificed on the altar of an “American” dream. We need those bells back as badly as we need our soul back. (We might just need it to assert our rights over the West Philippine Sea should, but God forbid, the way of peace fail.)