IN both ancient Greece and Rome, military victories were memorialized by display of captured weapons and flags from the defeated foe. But it worked both ways. A Roman standard bearing the Aquila, or eagle used as the symbol of the Roman legion was prized war booty.
The practice of a conquering army returning home with war booty from cultural objects to civilian slaves has been a part of human warfare from earliest times. During a Congressional debate in 1831 a New York senator, William L. Marcy, used the phrase “to the victor belong the spoils.” However, this was in regard to the benefits of winning an election. As then-United States President Barack Obama said simply to Congressional leaders questioning his policies, “I won.”
In June 2012—approximately two years after his inauguration—President Benigno S. Aquino III was welcomed by then-US President Obama to the White House. President Duterte has never made an official visit to the United States. Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.—then Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations—reported a conversation that he had with his American counterpart Nikki Haley. “Nikki Haley asked me last year: Why is your President still not coming to the US? I said: He never will until the Bells of Balangiga are returned.”
The Balangiga Bells are three church bells taken by the US Army from the town church of Balangiga, Eastern Samar, as war trophies in 1901 during the Philippine-American war.
About 48 members of the US 9th Infantry were killed by the townspeople allegedly assisted by guerrillas (or freedom fighters depending on who is telling the story) in the town of Balangiga on September 28 of that year.
Gen. Jacob H. Smith ordered that Samar be turned into a “howling wilderness” and that any Filipino male above 10 years of age be shot. In response, the US troops set the town on fire and killed Filipinos 10 years old and above. The attack left more than 2,500 Filipinos dead.
From the burned-out Catholic Church, the Americans looted three bells which they took back to the US as war booty. General Smith was subsequently court-martialed, not for his war crimes but for “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.” The Balangiga Bells have remained under control of the US military until now.
Last year Duterte requested—as his predecessors have—that Washington turn over the bells: “Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonizers and sacrificed their lives in the process.”
But not all Americans are happy with that decision. For some, the Bells are a memorial to American war dead during the “Philippine Insurrection”. A faint inscription visible on the back of two of the Bells, reads: ”Used By Philippinos [sic] To Sound Signal For Massacre Of Company “C” Ninth Infantry At Balangiga P.I. 28th September 1901.”
For Filipinos, the bells are a reminder of the sacrifices made by fellow Filipinos to gain independence from a colonial power that imposed its rule through the force of arms.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis called the decision to repatriate them an important gesture of friendship between the two countries. “History reminds us that all wars end. In returning the Bells of Balangiga to our ally and our friend, the Philippines, we pick up our generation’s responsibility to deepen the respect between our peoples.”
Returning the bells is a symbolic gesture. However, this gesture is necessary as it offers some closure to a terrible time and terrible actions.