The two-day Balangiga Historical Tour on Sept. 27-28, 1998, initiated by the University of the Philippines as a component of the 1998 U.P. Centennial Celebrations, offered a trip down memory lane. The places included in the itinerary were not only related to the Balangiga Massacre and its aftermath. They also exposed the tourists to the unique geographical, historical, and cultural milieu of the Leyte-Samar region.


THE BALANGIGA STORY
(September 1999 revision)

(Much has been clarified about the Balangiga story since this 1999 update. This slightly outdated version is being maintained here for purposes of future comparison once a more definitive account would have been written and published. - Webmaster)

In the morning of Sept. 28, 1901, hundreds of native fighters armed with bolos staged a successful surprise attack on U.S. troops mostly eating breakfast in the town of Balangiga, on the southern coast of Samar Island in eastern Philippines. That event, described as the "worst single defeat" of the US military in the Philippines, became known to history as the "Balangiga Massacre."

The natives fought to resist the destruction or confiscation of the townspeople�s food stocks, and to free about 80 male residents who had been rounded up for forced labor and detained for days in overcrowded conditions with little food and water.

The massacred troops were members of Company C, Ninth U.S. Infantry Regiment, who were stationed in Balangiga to keep its small port closed and prevent any trading. Their mission was intended to deprive the Filipino revolutionary forces of supplies during the Philippine-American War, which had spread to the Visayas.

The attacking force, coordinated by Valeriano Abanador, the local chief of police, comprised of around 500 men representing virtually all families of Balangiga, which outlying villages then included the present towns of Lawaan and Giporlos, and of Quinapundan, a town served by the priest in Balangiga. A few of their leaders, notably Capt. Eugenio S. Daza, were revolutionary officers under the command of Brig. Gen. Vicente R. Lukban, the politico-military governor of Samar appointed by Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo.

The attack was signaled by the ringing of Balangiga�s church bell. This bell was taken the day after the attack by American reinforcement troops from Basey town and brought by the Balangiga survivors to the United States as their war booty. Considered one of the worst defeats in American military history, the Filipino victory in Balangiga was followed by a shameful episode that would be replicated in a sensational but smaller scale by Americans soldiers in My Lai, Vietnam, in 1968.

The U.S. military authorities retaliated with a "kill and burn" policy to take back Samar, deliberately equating a victorious town with an entire island, from Oct. 1901 to March 1902. Implemented by Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith of the U.S. Army, the campaign resulted in the disappearance of some 50,000 people, the minimum increment of Samar�s population between 1896 and 1903. Among this human loss were the numerous civilian men, women, and children 10 years old and above, who were reported killed during combat operations to reduce Samar into a "howling wilderness."

Today, the Balangiga Massacre remains a largely forgotten episode of a forgotten war. Even the spate of publicity around the two "Bells of Balangiga" at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, whose return from the U.S. in time for the June 12 Philippine Centennial celebration was requested by the Philippine government, barely stirred the Filipinos from their collective amnesia. (Incidentally, recent findings are beginning to show conclusive proof that none of the two bells in Wyoming were rung to signal the attack against the Americans in Balangiga.)

Still the same, the Balangiga story must be told and retold, to remind us of a truly proud moment in our bloody route to freedom.

(The following conflicting claims by both sides of the Balangiga debate remained unresolved at the time of the U.P. Balangiga Historical Tour in September 1998.)

American version. "Of the 74 men of Company C, only 5 were uninjured: 12 were slightly wounded, 19 severely wounded, and 38 dead, including the three officers." Nine more died during the boat escape towards Basey (Young). "A grand total of 26 [Americans] would survive the attack" and 250 natives were killed during the fight in the Balangiga plaza, excluding the many others who were killed while pursuing the escaping survivors. The church-and-convent was burned by some of the survivors before they escaped on bancas. The rest of the town had been burned by the "insurgents" when reinforcement troops from Basey arrived the day after the attack. They latter claimed the American dead were mutilated and treated with indescribable indignities (Schott). Weeks later, soldiers of the Eleventh Infantry entered the unoccupied town and took with them the two "Bells of Balangiga," now displayed near the flagpole at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.

Filipino version. Only nine American survivors were seen paddling away from Balangiga, two of whom eventually reached Leyte. The seven others were intercepted and killed off Sitio Bulusao, now a village of Lawaan town. Among the native attackers, 28 were killed and 22 were wounded (Daza). The whole town, including the church and convent, was burned by reinforcement soldiers on board an American boat from Tacloban the day after the attack. The local residents fled to the mountains and stayed there for eight months (Arens). The plotters denied the mutilation charge, profaning the dead being taboo to the Filipinos. One of the bells rang to signal the attack was taken by American soldiers and brought to the United States (Daza). This bell, presumably the one photographed with the survivors which looked like a smaller version of the made-in-1889 bell now displayed in Wyoming, is probably the recently known "third Balangiga bell" always in the possession of the Ninth Infantry Regiment, now stationed in South Korea (Borrinaga).

THE BALANGIGA FREEDOM TRAIL

Aside from Balangiga town, a few other places were included in the itinerary for the Balangiga Historical Tour. Their names and their relation to the Balangiga Massacre and its aftermath are described below:

The vicinity of the The Leyte Park Resort in Tacloban City used to be a military camp known as Camp Bumpus. This camp was named after 1st Lt. Edward A. Bumpus, a Harvard graduate who was second in command of the U.S. troops massacred in Balangiga.

From this camp, Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith, the commanding officer of the Sixth Separate Brigade organized to avenge the American deaths in Balangiga, directed the implementation of his "kill and burn" policy to reduce Samar Island into a "howling wilderness."

Camp Bumpus was also the headquarters of the 11th U.S. Infantry Regiment, whose soldiers brought home to the United States in 1903 the two famous "Bells of Balangiga," now on display in Wyoming.

Basey was the headquarters of Company G, 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment, at the time of the Balangiga Massacre. The troops here were quartered in the two-story tribunal building (basic structure still exists), while the officers were quartered in the convent (still existing) adjacent to the town�s earthquake-Baroque church.

After the relief of the 9th Infantry following the Balangiga Massacre, Basey became the headquarters of a battalion of U.S. Marines (attached to the Sixth Separate Brigade) under the command of Major Littleton W.T. Waller.

At the end of 1901, the U.S. Marines undertook a disastrous forced march across the jungle of southern Samar, from Lanang in the east coast to Basey in the west, in their effort to break the back of the Filipino resistance. After their arrival in Basey, the tired, sick, and frustrated Marines, who lost ten of their comrades, executed by firing squad their nine remaining conscripted native carriers and two native guides. According to then U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, "the shooting of the native bearers by the orders of Major Waller was an act which sullied the American name."

The Leyte Gulf was the focus of the greatest naval battle in history from Oct. 22-27, 1944. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the turning point of the Pacific War, during which the Japanese air and naval forces were decisively routed by the Allied Forces under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Gen. MacArthur landed in Palo, Leyte, on Oct. 20, 1944. Incidentally, Oct. 20 was the also the same date of his arrival in Tacloban as a young lieutenant fresh from West Point in 1903. MacArthur started his military career with tours of duty in Camp Bumpus, Tacloban and Camp Connell in Calbayog, Samar. The latter camp was named after Capt. Thomas W. Connell, the commander of the massacred Company C in Balangiga.

Before James Michener�s South Pacific, American soldiers came in droves to our shores to wage war against freedom-fighting Filipinos. Some of them also acted like tourists and noted some of the country�s attractions for posterity. One soldier-tourist was Lt. Bumpus. In a letter from Balangiga dated Sept. 6, 1901, he described to his father some coastal scenery of Samar while sailing between Balangiga and Tacloban. He wrote:

Lt. Bumpus and his party of six soldiers probably landed in the vicinity of the present Marabut Marine Park Beach Resort in Marabut, Samar. The interesting rock he mentioned was perhaps one of the Marabut Islets, 15 towering rock islets with secluded beach coves and coral gardens ideal for snorkeling, swimming, and scuba diving.

The Sohoton area in the interior of Basey, Samar is now a tourist attraction called the Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park. It boasts of a natural bridge, a unique structure made of connected columns of limestone spanning two mountains, under which flows the Sohoton River. The Sohoton Caves express nature�s beauty in dazzling stalactites and stalagmites.

The Sohoton area was also a stronghold of Filipino freedom fighters during the Philippine-American War. The first attempt by U.S. Marines to storm this stronghold on Nov. 6, 1901 failed. A week later, a successful second attack resulted in some of the fiercest fighting during that war. A place name, Panhulugan (steep cliffs from the top of which native defenders dropped off rock boulders and logs to harass the enemy navigating the river below), memorializes a tactic used to defend this place.

Between the two attacks alone, the U.S. Marines reportedly burned 255 houses, killed 39 men and captured 18 others, killed 13 carabaos, and destroyed 50 bancas, rice supply and processed abaca in the Sohoton area.

Researcher:

Prof. Rolando O. Borrinaga
School of Health Sciences
University of the Philippines Manila
Palo, Leyte

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