President Duterte on Thursday decided to push through with his visit to Balangiga, Eastern Samar after he initially decided on Wednesday night to skip the turnover of the historic Balangiga bells to local officials on Saturday due to pressing matters.
“Due to the persistent requests from the people of Eastern Samar who look forward to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s personally bringing the Balangiga bells to the town of Balangiga, the President has decided to attend the turnover ceremony of the Balangiga bells to the local officials on Saturday, Dec. 15,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
“The President has made changes in his schedule of activities to join the Filipino community in welcoming the return of the bells,” Panelo added.
All three Balangiga bells made their way back to the Philippines last Tuesday, 17 months after Duterte publicly appealed to the US to return the bells during his second State-of-the-Nation Address last year.
The President was supposed to lead the turnover on Tuesday but skipped the event.
Panelo said while Duterte considers his appearance in the event an added attraction, the President thinks that the fact that the bells are finally home after 117 years is more important.
“He gives more importance to the fact that after 117 years, the Balangiga bells, which symbolize the bravery and patriotism of the Filipinos who refused to be subjugated by a foreign power and shed blood to assert the sovereignty of our country, have been returned to their origins where they properly belong. The bells are now indeed home,” Panelo said.
Panelo said that descendants of the victims of the war 117 years ago cherish the return of the bells which he described as a message to the rest of the world.
“The descendants of those who perished in one of the bloodiest and tragic consequences of the Filipino-American war rightfully cherish the coming home of a part of our national heritage and the Filipino nation join them in rejoicing the historic event,” he noted.
“As the Balangiga bells resume their ringing after a silence of more than a century, the booming sounds that will come out of them will resonate around the world with the sterling message that foreign domination nor outside intrusion on its sovereignty has no place in this part of the world,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Diocese of Borongan in Eastern Samar has rejected Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri’s proposal to keep one of the three bells in Manila.
Bishop Crispin Varquez and the clergy of the diocese said such a transfer is a disrespectful mangling of history and the right of the Catholic faithful of Balangiga to their private property.
They said the bells are “sacramentals” and “sacred artifacts” that call the faithful to prayer and worship.
“But they especially call them to the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the highest form of prayer and worship for Catholics. Therefore, they belong in the Church, not in a museum,” they said in a CBCP News post.
Zubiri had earlier filed Senate Resolution No. 965 that seeks to transfer one of the bells to the National Museum in Manila.
Zubiri said that keeping a bell in the museum would give many Filipinos a chance to see the artifact “and be reminded of the role it played in one of the bloodiest chapters of the Philippine-American War.” (Argyll Geducos and Leslie Ann G. Aquino)