Good morning.

My task is to introduce to you our two keynote speakers. But before I do that, please allow me to express some thoughts about this symposium, of which I am the convenor.

We have here today the biggest gathering of the most visible academicians, scholars, researchers, and advocates of the Balangiga issue in this part of the world. Several of them will speak before us this morning. I am sincerely grateful to each of them for coming over here using their own initiative and resources. Thank you, Dr. Malou Doronila; thank you, Dr. Malou Camagay; thank you, Ms. Charo Nabong-Cabardo; thank you, Doc Rey Imperial; thank you, Bob Couttie. You have helped keep the Balangiga issue alive.

There is something unique to this symposium. For the first time ever, we have brought together in a formal forum a descendant of an American soldier who survived the battle in Balangiga on Sept. 28, 1901, and a descendant of a Filipino fighter who actually clashed with this soldier. The American soldier was Private Adolph Gamlin, the first soldier to be attacked during the fighting in Balangiga. He was struck from behind by Capitan Valeriano Abanador and suffered severe head wounds. Gamlin was not killed in Balangiga, although his sprawled figure near Abanador had been memorialized in various art works. But in fighting for his life, Gamlin also wrestled and was wounded further by Mariano Valdenor, Abanador's second in command, who was armed with a long bolo on one hand and a knife on the other.

Gamlin, Abanador, and Valdenor lived to tell some of their stories to their children.

We have here with us the daughter of Pvt. Gamlin and a direct descendant of Mariano Valdenor and relative of the Abanadors. We invited them both to talk about their respective family lore and their own personal perspectives of the Balangiga event. Their presence will hopefully initiate the peace and reconciliation process for what had happened in Balangiga almost a century ago. We have to start at the person-to-person level involving direct descendants of those who actually fought in Balangiga, because external groups, institutions, and even entire sectors of the U.S. and Philippine governments seem to prefer that Americans and Filipinos remain at odds with each other over the memory of Balangiga.

The first keynote speaker is Ms. Jean Wall. We agreed that I leave it to her to speak about biographical details of her life during her talk. She came all the way from the United States to offer a wreath on behalf of the American and Filipino victims of the fighting in Balangiga on Monday, Sept. 28, the 97th Balangiga Encounter Day.

Balangiga haunted Jean's father for the rest of his life. She remembers well how her mother, Gamlin's second wife, regularly had to comfort him and how the family had to learn to cope with his frequent return to the terrors of Balangiga. Indeed, the night before he died at the age of 91, he woke up yelling "they're coming, they're coming," repeating the same warning he gave his comrades 70 years earlier.

The second speaker is Engr. Ted Amano. Ted is the son of the late Atty. Dominador Amano, a lawyer-historian, and Mrs. Aurea Amano, a retired high school teacher, both natives of Balangiga. He was born on Nov. 24, 1957. He studied high school at the Divine Word University in Tacloban and finished his tertiary studies with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City. He passed the professional examination for electrical engineers in 1982. He now works with an electronics company.

Ted is married to Rosabelle Camenforte, also a native of Balangiga. Now Manila-based, they have three children.

Ted is presently the president of An Balangigan-on, Inc. and adviser of the Balangiga Historical and Cultural Foundation.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ms. Jean Wall and Engr. Ted Amano.

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