MARKER tells the story of Filipino revolutionaries who waited for church bells to peal as a signal to attack American colonial forces in 1901. It also tells the story of changes that the historic church had gone through. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The homecoming of the “Bells of Balangiga” to the Philippines was because of the hard work of war veterans.
This was the explanation of Dr. Rolando Borrinaga of the Committee on Historical Research of National Commission for Culture and the Arts, adding the support of two major war veteran organizations in the United States made the return of the historic bells possible.
Borrinaga said the return of Balangiga bells was mainly a veteran-to-veteran effort.
“Itong campaign na ito basically veterans to veterans. ’Yung mga nagkampanya doon mga 2 or 3 years ago, they focused on convincing the community of veterans sa US na ‘yung pagpasauli ng bells is the right thing to do,” Borrinaga said in an interview over DZMM.
According to Borrinaga, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion passed their respective resolutions authorizing return of the Balangiga bells, which were taken as war souvenirs during the Philippine-American war in 1901, to the country.
These resolutions, Borrinaga said, led to the introduction of a special legislation under the US National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, which allowed “transfer of veteran’s memorial objects to foreign countries without specification in law.”
“‘Yun (resolutions) ang basically naka-influence ng US politicians to pass the law allowing the return of the bells to the Philippines,” Borrinaga noted.
Borrinaga said the return of Balangiga bells “all boils down to paper trail.”
“Sa akin, we can claim na ‘yung sabi ni President Duterte ‘yung naka-influence pero in the American’s scheme of things, it all boils down to paper trail,” he said.
“Parang sa aking observation, I have been following this trend, halos wala naman talagang paper trail galing sa Pilipinas related to this campaign na parang successful legislation sa US na maisauli ‘yung bells sa atin,” he added. /kga
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