(We yield this space to the statement of the progressive labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
THE RETURN of the Balangiga bells is a token of the Philippine government’s renewed subservience to US. Unlike the Duterte government, the Filipino workers and people refuse to thank the foreign aggressors for returning the bells because we are its true owners. The church bells symbolize the Filipinos’ resistance to colonial rule, and the bloodbath brought by US war.
The bells were taken by the US Army in 1901 from the Balangiga church in Samar. They ring a painful memory indeed, but its return to Samar does not bring a closure. Filipinos embrace the bells’ return filled with memories of the massacre unleashed in the name of US war.
One hundred seventeen years ago, Filipinos were resisting extreme hunger and repression brought by US military occupation. The church bells were used to signal a surprise attack launched by the people of Balangigar. As an act of retaliation, the US Army ordered the killing of all males over the age of 10, and took the bells.
The US government was forced to return the Balangiga bells not because of President’s Duterte’s appeal to US. The act is part of military propaganda related to the global war on terrorism. The two governments want to show that they continue to be allies. US President Donald Trump’s approval of the return of the Balangiga bells is not an act of friendship. It is a reminder for Philippines to fulfill the political and economic agreements with its imperialist master.
The pretense of renewed US-Philippines unity is also aimed at sending a strong message to China – that the Philippines is a US stronghold. It is also a warning to the Filipino people against waging resistance.
The US government is not contented with the implementation of neoliberal economic policies that subject our workers and farmers to exploitation, while multinational corporations and foreign investors rake in huge profits, nor is it contented with the loot coming from the huge tax cuts to pay foreign debt. It is also not contented with the profits coming from the arms deal between US and Philippines which fuels the war in Mindanao and the rest of the country.
With the return of the Balangiga bells, the US is asserting its sole domination in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region.
If President Duterte really wants to show that the return of the bells is about upholding the Filipino people’s interests, it should junk neoliberal policies and uphold an independent foreign policy. It should also cease all military planning and operations conducted with the US government, including those related to the continued implementation of martial law in Mindanao.
More than 10, 000 Filipinos were killed during the Balangiga massacre. Today, military attacks in Mindanao and the rest of the country, which employ drone strikes and other forms of US military operations, are being conducted in the pretext of global war on terrorism. The Filipino people’s situation under foreign control did not change after 117 years. We are driven to extreme hunger, poverty and repression because the Philippine government continues to be a puppet of imperialists.
