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.

The younger Revilla revealed his plan during his speech at the 104th anniversary of the Balangiga Encounter Day here last Sept. 28.

His speech was interrupted several times by the shrieks of his fans, most of them students, among a crowd of several hundreds that included local officials, army soldiers and officers and regional officials.

The elder Revilla starred in “Sunugin ang Samar (Burn Samar)” in the 1970s, an action film that a Balangiga-born priest had once described as “20 percent Balangiga and 80 percent Ramon Revilla.” The son seeks to produce a well-researched film that would dramatize what happened in Balangiga on Sept. 28, 1901.

Senator Revilla hope this project could influence the return of the town’s church bells that were taken as war trophies by US soldiers at the height of the Philippine-American War in 1901.

Two of these bells are displayed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, while a third bell is with US troops stationed in South Korea.

During the reception after the program of the Balangiga encounter anniversary, Revilla asked the age of Capitan Valeriano Abanador, the leader of the Filipino attackers on Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment. No one could give him a correct answer.

Abanador turned 32 a few weeks before the 1901 attack that he led, having been born on Sept. 13, 1869. The senator turned 36 last Sept. 25.

The attack that Abanador led in 1901 resulted in the death of 48 of 74 American soldiers and officers stationed in the Balangiga garrison. Of the 26 survivors, only four were not wounded. The Filipino attackers suffered 28 deaths and 22 wounded.

Considered one of the worst defeats in US military history, the Filipino victory in Balangiga was followed by a still controversial episode when Brig. Gen. Jacob Smith waged a three-month “kill and burn” campaign to turn Samar into “a howling wilderness” from October 1901 to January 1902.

General Smith was eventually made the scapegoat for the shameful policy on Samar. He was forced to retire from the US Army following a court-martial.

In Wyoming, the recent Balangiga bells controversy is coming to a head.

INQUIRER sources said that previously silent veterans are now talking and blaming the state governor’s office for the fiasco. They alleged a quid pro quo among the politicians, with the bells being held as hostage.

Early last month [sic, August], a major shakeup in the Wyoming Veterans Commission (WVC) raised speculation that the new appointments of Wyoming Gov. David Freudenthal were linked to the bells controversy. This was triggered by the March 26 decision of the WVC to support a resolution to return to the Philippines the two bells displayed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

The governor’s action drew a commentary from Casper Star Tribune, the state-wide newspaper, in its Aug. 8 editorial. It said: “The Bells of Balangiga have become an embarrassment to Wyoming … [The governor] allowed veterans groups to dictate a house cleaning in the Wyoming Veterans Commission—apparently because the commission had dared to suggest returning the bells to the Philippines. In doing so, the governor perpetuated a century-old grudge against a longtime US ally … Whatever offenses were committed by either side at Balangiga [in 1901], reconciliation is long overdue … Wyoming doesn’t need these bells. America needs to give them back.”

Among five names on a “do-not-reappoint” list heeded by the governor were Robert Palmer, the previous WVC chair; Joseph Sestak, who raised the approved motion to return the two original bells in Wyoming to Balangiga; and William A. Thompson.

Thompson, a Korean War veteran and life member of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion (AL), had served the WVC for six years and had asked to be reappointed. He believed his support for returning the bells was one reason he did not get a new term.

Freudenthal had denied that the new appointments were linked to the vote on the bells. But Robert Craft, a VFW service officer and newly appointed WVC member, admitted that the bells issue had something to do with the governor’s choice of appointments.

Craft accused the WVC of failing to represent the Wyoming veterans with their bells decision, which he claimed was opposed by veterans groups throughout the state.

Arthur Rymill, past VFW state commander, belied Craft’s accusation in a letter published by the Casper Star Tribune on Aug. 10: “It is high time that we extend our friendly hand and let these people have the historical bells that should be in their rightful place in the Philippines. I think the action taken by the [WVC] was right on target, then a few veterans expressed their feelings to the governor without clearance from the majority of veterans to get the governor to ‘clean house’ in the Veterans Commission.”

Don Ewing, the director of the WVC, also refuted Craft’s accusation. “I must make it clear that the veterans opposed to the return of the bells are the hierarchy of the VFW and American Legion. Between these two organizations, they have only [about] 12,000 veterans. Even though this group proposes to speak for all veterans, there are 45,000 that do not belong to either of these two veterans private service clubs. History has shown us that very few of the rank-and-file of these two organizations’ members seldom know what their commanders are doing, and few even know of this opposition to the return of the bells,” Ewing said in an e-mail to this writer.

Sestak, who did not seek WVC reappointment, clarified in a letter published by the Casper Star Tribune on April 8 that the issue of the bells was “a long and carefully considered process.”

He said members of the bells committee, within WVC, conducted a state-wide consultation from December 2004 to March this year and “received no opposition to the return of the bells and, in most cases, received support” from veterans and their groups.

He said it was the intent of the WVC to follow an orderly process and not provide any publicity for this issue until it was resolved with the governor. But someone made a news release without the permission of the commission and, to his knowledge, of any state official.

The WVC usually makes decisions by consensus, and by unanimous agreement among its members who represent various veterans groups and geographical posts. Last March’s action on the bells had the making of another consensus until somebody suggested a secret balloting that was agreed upon in good faith.

The balloting turned out to be a procedural trap that the opponents of the bells’ return exploited later. The mystery also remains that the 11 WVC members present cast 12 votes, for an 8-4 count in favor. The matter was resolved by deducting one from the “yes” votes.

The rest is a confusing impasse. The Wyoming governor rejected the recommendation of his own commission, publicly declared that he opposed the return of the bells to the Philippines, and then admitted to the Balangiga mayor that the artifacts located on a federal facility are outside of his official authority.

The new WVC, which met for the first time last Sept. 24, also deferred action on the bells issue.

Jean Wall, who spoke on the bells at the WVC’s meeting last March, said the bells must be returned to the Philippines as quickly as possible, if the bottomline here is to stop the intra-veteran feud they have caused in Wyoming.

She said the bells were being used for political and personal agenda that leave a trail of negativism with no benefits to any one country, people or individual.

She wished someone with power at the highest level of the US government would take notice and take action on the bells issue.

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