BALANGIGA ENCOUNTER DAY

Commemorating the Historic Victory of September 1901

On the historic day of September 28, 1901 between 6:20 and 6:45 a.m. in the
morning the Balangiganons and its neighboring barrios of Quinapundan and
Giporlos made a surprised attack on the American armies situated in Balangiga.
Fourty-four American officers and soldiers were killed and 22 were
wounded. This has been the most outstanding victory of the Filipinos in the entire
Philippine-American War. For the Americans, the Balangiga attack was the worst
single defeat they had experienced after the Battle of Little Big Horn.
To avenge their defeat an American general (Gen. Jacob Smith) ordered his
men to turn Samar into a "howling wilderness".