An ambitious and determined campaign to bring back the historic “Bells of Balangiga”, the three church bells taken by the United States Army from the town church of Balangiga, Eastern Samar as war booty in 1901, will be launched soon in Beverly Hills, California. The launch will have an Indiegogo crowdfunding drive component to support activities that include producing a documentary to generate awareness about the bells and the events surrounding September 28, 1901 in Samar.
ABS-CBN’ The Filipino Channel (TFC) will help promote awarenesss on the campaign which aims to raise US$100,000 in 45 days on Indiegogo.  The effort is led by the Committee for the Return of the Bells of which former Hollywood actor and current Los Angeles-based international private investigator Logan Clarke is the president.

Many Filipino and American celebrities have lent their names to the campaign: Philippine Congressman and world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao who is the Honorary Committee Chairman; U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (who is the chair of Subcommittee of Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats); former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson; Beverly Hills Police Chief David Snowden; philanthropist Armando Derossi; actors/activists Rosario Dawson, Danny Glover, John Savage, Nastassja Kinski, and Xander Berkeley; award-winning documentarian Jack Silberman; radio host-activist Kerri Kasem; writer-educator-activist Oscar Penaranda; actor-director-producers Ronnie Ricketts, Casandra Cava, Ferdinand Galang, Grant and Lysa Heslov; and Filipino American Jazz Festival Founder Carlos Zialcita, to name some. The coastal town of Balangiga, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, is where one of the bloodiest chapters of American colonialism of the Philippines transpired. An island-wide massacre on September 28, 1901 ordered by General Jacob Smith, with instructions to “kill every male over 10 years old”, resulted actually to the deaths of thousands of Filipino men, women and children. 

The brutal act was in response to the killing of 48 U.S. soldiers by Filipino rebels.  Samar at that time was a hotbed for rebel activity.  The U.S. troops inflicted the ultimate insult after the massacre by seizing the town’ precious church bells. 

The church belfry is among just a few buildings in the town that have survived the war, time and typhoon Haiyan.  The bells are at the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, under U.S. custody. Supporters have urged the U.S. government to return the bells to the Philippines: For more information on the campaign, visit www.bringhthebellsback.org