Complete name of student: Faith Angel M. Masangcay Subject: Hist.

1
Assignment title: Assignment #2 Date submitted: Oct. 24, 2018

Have you considered something or an object that could stand as symbol of you, of your
self? Something that has the same characteristic and act like you do? Or something that could
explain your past and determine how are you today? Well I find this topic just like that. The
church bells in Philippines history.
Both the article and the documentary reflect how artifacts relating to Philippine history
really meant to Filipinos. These so-called artifacts (the bells to be exact) were significant not
because of the bell itself but because of the story behind it (Pedrosa, 2017). The bells simply
remind us what the war brought us, what we’ve been through as Filipinos and how rich the
Philippine history is.
The bells were built during the Spanish colonization to serve as the notifier to the people
when it is time to come to church for a mass, to announce that a wedding or death is being held
and even gather them for important matters to be known. At the Balangiga Massacre, the bells
were used to signal Filipinos to start the war against the 74 Americans who were having their
breakfast early in the morning. As a counterattack, Gen. Jake Smith then ordered to turn Samar
into a “howling wilderness” by killing and burning it down. The killings even included boys over
ten years old who knew how to hold and use weapons. And as a sign of triumph on revenge, the
Americans took the bells of Balangiga church as war booty.
The Balangiga Massacre is a bare brutality. A bloodiest affair of Filipinos against
Americans on September 28, 1901. This clearly happened when Americans degraded the ability
of Filipinos to fight for their rights and justice against abuses. Filipinos would have been a great
companion only if the Americans treated them with fairness and didn’t took advantage of their
power. Basically, the Americans started it when they tried to molest a Filipina and didn’t do
about it when the locals sided on the woman’s defense. Instead, American soldiers forcibly
labored and confined them consuming unjust food and drink. So, it was a natural move of
Filipinos to seek revenge and freedom from their oppression. If only Gen. Smith saw that
perspective that his men made the first mistake and took advantage of the Filipinos, Samar would
have not been ended that perilous. Somehow, Gen. Smith is an American, so it is obvious that he
will take the American side and act as a good leader to them.
Having the Balangiga bells back to the Philippines is definitely a rightful decision that
American could do. In the first place, the bells are ours and are part of our national heritage just
like what Pres. Rodrigo Duterte said in his second State of the Nation Address appealing to
return the bells to the Philippines. Many attempts of request to get back the bells were made by
leaders of the country, but sadly, until now no certain agreement regarding the bells have been
confirmed.
We are not after the bells. We are genuinely concern about the story that it brings, the
event that it symbolizes and the memories of brave Filipinos who fought for their rights and
freedom that could only be made realistic with the presence of the actual bells. If the Americans
took it to become their trophy, we are getting it back because it is our national treasure.
Works Cited
Pedrosa, C. N. (2017, July 28). philstar GLOBAL. Retrieved from www.philstar.com:
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/07/28/1722493/it-not-bells-story-balangiga-
matters