Finestkind Clinic and fish market: The Belangiga Bells are back

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The Belangiga Bells are back

The Belangiga bells have been returned from the USA to the Philippines, and the country is happy about it.

Photo credit Doy Marcosos:PhilInquirer

PhilInquirer relates why they were taken.

The bells were taken by American forces in September 1901 from a Catholic church in Balangiga, after Filipinos killed 48 out of 74 U.S. soldiers. As a retaliatory attack, U.S. forces razed the town which killed thousands of Filipinos, in what is known as Balangiga Massacre. The Americans took the bells as war trophies

Yes. The takeover of the Philippines from Spain to the US resulted in a lot of atrocities (on both sides: and the American retaliation was very barbaric. Then there were a lot of deaths from disease etc. A little remembered part of American history).

Ironically, Mark Twain was one of the most famous writers who opposed American policy, pointing out:

If it had been played according to the American rules, Dewey would have sailed away from Manila as soon as he had destroyed the Spanish fleet – after putting up a sign on shore guaranteeing foreign property and life against damage by the Filipinos, and warning the Powers that interference with the emancipated patriots would be regarded as an act unfriendly to the United States...

Dewey could have gone about his affairs elsewhere, and left the competent Filipino army to starve out the little Spanish garrison and send it home, and the Filipino citizens to set up the form of government they might prefer, and deal with the friars and their doubtful acquisitions according to Filipino ideas of fairness and justice – ideas which have since been tested and found to be of as high an order as any that prevail in Europe or America.