For several issues now, the INQUIRER has been drumming up the 50th anniversary of the Leyte landing. Perhaps this reflects the newspaper's support for a commemoration that will approximate the pomp of the Normandy commemoration.

I join the call for a grandiose celebration of the Leyte landing, but for two entirely different reasons.

First, I wish that Valeriano Ibañez Abello will be honored for his crucial role during the Leyte landing 50 years ago. In speech after speech during past celebrations, US government representatives almost always cited the courageous act of this solitary figure who suddenly appeared on the beach of Leyte, to signal in semaphore to the US forces that civilian lives were endangered by their impending bombardment and offered to point out to them the Japanese artillery emplacements and defensive positions.

The rest was history. The Leyte landing cost fewer American lives and led to the most decisive rout of the Japanese Imperial forces. And many Filipinos lived to see the end of the war because somebody, in a moment of danger, risked his life and limb so that others would not perish senselessly.

Yet, past organizers of the celebration have ignored Abello despite constant reminders about his valorous act by the local radio stations and the frequent American reference to his heroism. The perennial omission was perhaps due to the fact that Abello is not a "veteran" (i.e., an enlisted combatant under the Allied military command).

Secondly, I wish that the forthcoming celebration will be linked to a magnanimous commitment of the US government to return the church bells of Balangiga, Eastern Samar. Now mounted as war memento at the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, USA, these bells were looted by US Army troops during reprisal operations following an attack of native bolo fighters that almost wiped out a company of US Marines (sic) during the infamous "Balangiga Massacre" on Sept. 29 (sic), 1901.

Because of that sensational Filipino victory during the Philippine-American War, the US Army through Gen. Jacob Smith imposed a My Lai-type "kill-and-burn" policy on Samar, which resulted in the extermination of at least 500 natives (mostly civilians) for every American dead at Balangiga. Whole towns and villages were also burned by pillaging American troops.

The link between the Leyte landing and the sad events memorialized by the Balangiga bells was the possibility that Gen. Douglas MacArthur may have served in Leyte around 1901 (perhaps as an aide of Gen. Smith?). A military map drawn by a Lieutenant MacArthur, displayed in the sala of an old Tacloban house and seen his pre-war childhood by our informant, suggested personal knowledge and mastery of the Leyte-Samar terrain, which he put to good use more than 40 years later.

As an occasional historian, I would not mind if the Americans, their allies and the Philippine government make a spectacle out of the 50th anniversary of the Leyte landing. They certainly deserve this back-patting exercise. But without the return of the Balangiga bells, the pomp of the celebration will cover up the fact that the Americans killed at least a dozen times more natives of Leyte and Samar during the Philippine-American War than those who died during three years of World War II in the hands of the Japanese, guerrillas and the 1994 Allied fire power in the region.

(NOTE: Valeriano Abello was eventually included among the honorees during the 50th Leyte Landing anniversary. He received a Certificate of Recognition from Pres. Ramos. But his application for veteran status was never granted by the Philippine government. He passed away last July 17, 1999, at the age of 85, but his death wish for a hero's burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani was not granted.

This letter was translated into Japanese for publication in a newsletter of the Japanese war veterans.)

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