BALANGIGA GUESTS 2004. Three guests of the 103rd Balangiga Encounter Day celebration last Sept. 28 returned to town the day after the anniversary for additional research data gathering. They also had the above photo taken, with the Balangiga plaza and church in the background, just before returning to Tacloban. From left are Prof. Rolando O. Borrinaga (the webmaster), Jack Silberman, and Bob Couttie. Borrinaga and Couttie are members of the Balangiga Research Group (BRG) and authors of separate books on the Balangiga Incident. Silberman, a Canada-based American, is a multi-awarded documentary filmmaker with a plan to film his Balangiga documentary.
The Year 2000 was a turning point in the webmaster's Balangiga advocacy
both in terms of language and content. The language has mellowed since
then, and
the knowledge base has been vastly expanded and refined.
Still the bells seem so
far away from its owner and place of origin.
The English translation of all talking parts in the ABS-CBN documentary, “Mga Kampana ng Balangiga (The Bells of Balangiga),” by Abner P. Mercado, reporter of The CORRESPONDENTS Program. It was premiered on August 15, 2006, after 11:00 p.m. The translation was done by Prof. Rolando O. Borrinaga of the Balangiga Research Group (BRG).
Like father, like son. Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. has always been like his father in many ways. After following his father’s footsteps in show biz and in politics, he now plans to star in another Balangiga movie as did his father in the 1970s. (Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 8, 2005.)
Which will occur first: the return of the Balangiga bells or the ritual reconciliation among descendants of the combatants from both sides of the Battle of Balangiga in 1901? (Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on September 24, 2005.)
on the Campaign for the Return of the Bells of Balangiga
Paper presented at the Philippine Studies Association’s First Regional Seminar-Workshop on Philippine Studies in the Visayas, Golden Peak Hotel, Cebu City, September 9-10, 2005.
The print on the back of the locally printed t-shirts said it all: "Let the bells ring [from] the belfry where they belong." With that terse message, the town of Balangiga in Eastern Samar commemorated the 103rd anniversary of the "Balangiga Encounter Day" last Tuesday, Sept. 28 [2004]. (Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 2, 2004.)
Baby Anna Belle Couttie was born in Subic on Balangiga Encounter Day Sept. 28 last year [2002]. 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. (Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 11, 2003.)
Popular readers’ version summarizing the doctoral dissertation titled "The Balangiga Conflict Revisited," Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City, 2002. The book version, published by New Day Publishers in Quezon City, Philippines, is now off the press.
Believe it or not, a century after the Balangiga Conflict, Capitan Valeriano Abanador and Pvt. Adolph Gamlin, two greater heroes from both sides, still managed to send eerie messages from the paranormal realm. (Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Dec. 1, 2001.)
The writer reviews the literature related to the "Balangiga Conflict" (yes, a shift in jargon) through the past century. Published in ICHTHUS (Vol. 2, No. 1, 2001), the journal of the St. John the Evangelist School of Theology in Palo, Leyte, Philippines.)
The Balangiga Research Group (BRG) has collected a total of 26 different print media items related to the Balangiga Conflict published in the Philippines and the U.S. during the three-month period from Aug. to Oct. 2001. For whom did the Balangiga bell toll?
Summarized Filipino version of the Balangiga Incident and its aftermath as of Sept. 2001. Published in slightly edited form as "Filipino victory in Balangiga recalled" in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sept. 28, 2001. This supersedes the Balangiga story in the Inquirer article published last Aug. 4.
For a fleeting moment, protagonists of the Balangiga bells issue on both sides of the Pacific set aside their differences and shared data and information. As a result, they finally unravelled the puzzle of the three bells of Balangiga. (Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Aug. 11, 2001.)
"A good review of the incident and the current state of efforts to have the bells returned," commented Jim Zwick, administrator of the Sentenaryo/Centennial website. Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Aug. 4, 2001.
"Why should you pay me for my love of country?" ... Feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sept. 28, 2000. Grand Prize Winner in the Gawad Kalinangan 2000 (Culture Prize 2000), the refocused Rotary Club of Manila Journalism Awards. The awarding rites were held at the Centennial Hall of The Manila Hotel on June 14, 2001.
Message of Jean Wall on the occasion of the 99th Balangiga Encounter Day on Sept. 28, 2000.
Hell is a summer resort beside Samar
The webmaster wrote this editorial published in the Leyte Samar Daily Express on May 14, 2000. The Express is the first daily newspaper in the Leyte-Samar region.
The human cost of wars in Leyte and Samar
This paper discusses the human cost of the Leyte episode of World War II and the Samar episode of the Philippine-American War. It concludes with a narration of recent efforts toward peace, understanding and reconciliation related to the Balangiga Massacre, which will commemorate its own centennial in 2001.