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?

This chicken-or-egg question bugs the healing and closure process for the descendants of those involved in the Balangiga Encounter, which 104th anniversary would be commemorated in this Eastern Samar town on Sept. 28.

There were high hopes early this year that the two Bells of Balangiga at F.E. Warren Air Force Base (AFB) in Wyoming would soon be on their way home to the Philippines. But the Wyoming governor has since scuttled these hopes.

Last March 26, the Wyoming Veterans Commission (WVC), by a 7-4 vote in favor, decided to support a resolution to return the two bells in their territory to the Philippines.

The vote was a result of months of behind-the-scene efforts by the Balangiga Research Group (BRG) to influence the decision by providing the commission with the latest findings from their research that had clarified and resolved the contrasting American and Filipino versions of the Balangiga Incident on Sept. 28, 1901.

The BRG is composed of Jean Wall, the daughter of the first American soldier to be attacked in Balangiga; Bob Couttie, a Subic-based British screenwriter and video director; and this writer.

The BRG’s research findings have also been acknowledged and used by Eastern Samar Bishop Leonardo Medroso and other US-based supporters in their complementary campaign for the return of the bells to the country.

Just before the WVC voting, Jean Wall presented her case for the return of the bells, based on two arguments that were not contested by any WVC member: that none of the two bells in Wyoming was rung during the attack by Filipino guerrilla fighters on Company C, 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment (the involved bell is in the museum of the 2nd US Infantry Division stationed in Korea); and that there is no connection between Wyoming and Company C, since no member of the ill-fated company came from Wyoming.

After the vote, the next step would have been for the WVC representatives and Wall to call on Wyoming Gov. David Freudenthal and brief him on the decision, and then they would release a joint press statement on the issue.

But a disgruntled member of the WVC broke agreed rules and persuaded Gov. Freudenthal to oppose the return of the bells. The governor did so with a press release, even before he was formally briefed and given the opportunity to examine the evidence supporting the commission’s decision.

Away from the media, Balangiga Mayor Catalina Camenforte, through the BRG, sent an e-mail to Gov. Freudenthal, expressing her people’s “appreciation to the Wyoming Veterans Commission for its decision to recommend the return of the two bells.”

The response was made by a political analyst of the Wyoming governor. It stated:

“The governor believes the two Bells of Balangiga … represent a significant part of Wyoming’s military heritage … and he respectfully believes they should stay where they are now located. [But] the fate of these bells, situated on a federal facility, has been for many years and is at the discretion of the federal government and the ultimate decision to return the Bells of Balangiga or leave them as they are at F.E. Warren AFB is one over which Governor Freudenthal has no authority. A decision to return the bells to the Philippines would come from the United States Congress.”

Regarding the legalities, experts around the world that the BRG had consulted were one in saying that based on custom law, military law, and international treaties, the contested bells belong to Balangiga.

All US officials directly involved in the Balangiga issue on both sides of the Pacific, including US Army senior leaders and diplomats, have also been one in saying, although quietly, that their government knows that the right, legal and ethical course of action is to return the bells to their rightful place, that is, in Balangiga.

On top of these, the US Congress, through the Unified Code of Military Justice, has provided the US president with the required authority to return the bells regardless of the status of the property rights involved.

The Balangiga bells issue has exploded into a mud-slinging contest involving the sense of honor, integrity, reputations and affiliations of key veteran leaders in Wyoming.

Three WVC members who were known to have voted in favor of returning the bells were not reappointed to the commission last July. They were alleged victims of “bullying” inside the WVC, which was exposed by Patty Burgin, a worker on the commission, in a letter published by the Casper Star Tribune last Aug. 10.

The foremost “bullying” victim so far is Col. Joe Sestak, who raised the approved motion to return the two original bells in Wyoming to Balangiga. He is now out of the WVC.

Sestak, as Wyoming department commander of the American Legion, was the “point man” for keeping the bells in US soil during President Fidel Ramos’ failed campaign in 1997-98 to have the bells returned to the country in time for the centennial of the Declaration of the Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898.

This time around, backed by recent research findings and new information, Sestak has had a change of heart and wants the bells to be returned.

“Returning the bells is the right thing to do in light of the present international climate and the fact that many nations are now returning artifacts or booty to the nations from which they came,” Sestak said in a letter published by the Casper Star Tribune last April 8.

In 1998, 46 out of 60 members of the House of Representatives and 18 of 30 senators in the Wyoming State Legislature signed an informal joint esolution endorsing a plan to replicate the two war trophies on display at the F.E. Warren AFB so both Balangiga and Wyoming could have one authentic and one replica bell each.

But the resolution failed to prosper due to the opposition from the veterans, who felt they were “shut out of the process.”

It was the Wyoming veterans’ voice that was heard in the US Congress, where Senators Craig Thomas and Michael B. Enzi and Rep. Barbara Cubin filed bills opposing any move to dismantle the bells.

This time, the same Wyoming Congressional delegation and the state governor are exerting pressure on the critical mass of veterans who already favor the return of the bells to abide by their old position to keep the bells in their state.

Apart from the bells campaign, officials and key residents of Balangiga have spearheaded the process of healing and reconciliation between the descendants of Balangiga and of Company C, 9th US Infantry Regiment.

Jean Wall started the process for the American survivors’ descendants in 1998 and 2001. She has since reconciled with the descendants of Capitan Valeriano Abanador and Mariano Valdenor, two Balangiga fighters who had actually fought with her father, Pvt. Adolph Gamlin, in 1901.

In March 2003, Balangiga Mayor Camenforte wrote a letter to Col. Daniel P. Bolger, Chief of Staff of the Korea-based 2nd US Infantry Division, the mother unit of the 9th US Infantry Regiment. She invited their town’s former enemy unit to conduct a sentimental visit to Balangiga on Aug. 10 and 11 of that year. (Aug. 10 is the town fiesta, and Aug. 11 is the date of arrival of Company C in Balangiga in 1901.)

Camenforte has since received a response from Captain Parik, commander of Company C. The captain’s letter expressed friendship and the need for a “long overdue reconciliation” for the 1901 event.

But though the Balangiga mayor’s invitation had been accepted, Company C’s sentimental visit may not be forthcoming soon.

Last year, the 9th US Infantry Regiment, including Company C, was dispatched to Iraq to fight a war that has parallels with the bloody Samar battlefield a century ago.

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