BALANGIGA DAY 2003. Guests of Mrs. Aurea Amano (second from left) during the 102nd Balangiga Day commemoration included (from left) Jack Silberman, a prize-winning Canadian documentary film maker, Bob Couttie of the Balangiga Research Group (BRG), Mrs. Mercy Couttie and Baby Anna Belle Couttie, and Dr. Robert K. Combs, division historian of the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division in South Korea. Mrs. Amano is the mother of Capt. Anton Amano, a US Army chaplain now stationed in Iraq.
BABY Anna Belle Couttie was born in Subic on Balangiga Encounter Day Sept. 28 last year. Two Sundays ago, she spent her first birthday with her parents, Bob and Mercy Couttie, and family friends in Balangiga, a town in Eastern Samar that would always be associated with her name.
The “Anna” in her name is the shortened version of the name of Casiana Nacionales, the heroine of Balangiga during the attack of native fighters on an American garrison in the town during the Philippine-American War a century ago.
The “Belle” rings bells, of course, and our party to the Balangiga anniversary this year considers the baby the “fourth bell” of the town.
Bob, a Subic-based British screenwriter and video director married to a Filipina, and I, both founding members of the Balangiga Research Group (BRG), were in Balangiga when Anna Belle was born.
At the time, we were facilitating the coverage of the anniversary activities by British Broadcasting Corp.’s Radio 4 Station. The documentary was broadcast in November last year and the program may still be heard when downloaded from the BBC website.
New guests
This time, we had two other guests. The more important one was Dr. Robert Kim Combs, the division historian of the 2nd US Infantry Division stationed in South Korea, the mother unit of Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment that was attacked in Balangiga in 1901.
We had mistaken Combs for a sergeant because the BRG had dealt with a sergeant, another person, in our attempt to verify the existence of a “third bell.”
It turned out Combs is a civilian defense employee who is also a museum curator for the military division he was with. He is the official custodian of the Balangiga bell in Korea.
Combs said the U.S. Army hierarchy now fully supports the repatriation of the two Balangiga bells displayed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to the town where they rightfully belong.
“Unlike the bell in Korea, which is a revered relic and has become part of the ceremonies and tradition of the 9th US Infantry Regiment for over a century now, the two bells which were abandoned by an Army unit in Wyoming are not part of US Air Force history,” he said.
The other unannounced guest was Jack Silberman, a Canada-based American and a documentary filmmaker.
His films have won more than 45 Canadian and international awards.
He joined our party to conduct research and observe the commemorative activities for a documentary film about the Balangiga story and the bells that he will shoot next year.