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UID:Indybay-25913
SEQUENCE:25913
CREATED:20040203T182400Z
DESCRIPTION:"A Memorial Service \nCommemorating the 102nd Anniversary Of the Taking of 
 \nThe Bells of Balangiga\nThis Thursday, October 16, 7 pm"\n\nThe Filipino 
 American community wants the United States to return the Bells of 
 Balangiga, to their church home in this small Philippine town. Today they 
 are displayed as a "trophy of war" at the Warren Air Force  base, near 
 Cheyenne, Wyoming.  \n\nTwo days later, October 18, 2003, President George 
 Bush and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo meet in Manila.  
 President Arroyo, will urge the return of the Bells of Balangiga to the 
 Philippines.  Media coverage of the San Francisco event is expected to 
 appear the morning Bush arrives in Manila. \n\nTHE STORY OF THE BELLS OF 
 BALANGIGA\n\nThe bells in the church in Balangiga signaled the townspeople 
 to rise up against invading U.S. soldiers on September 28, 1901. That day, 
 48 American soldiers and 250 Filipinos died. Casualties, after many months, 
 were estimated at 25,000.\n\n102 years later the bells are displayed at the 
 Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Many now believe the time 
 has come to return the bells.\n\nEarlier this month, Bishop Leonardo Y 
 Medroso, DD, the Bishop of Borongan, said,\n\n"Records tell that the bells 
 were the property of the Roman Catholic Church when they were taken by the 
 U.S. Forces. They were church bells. They were religious artifacts with 
 considerable significance in the Catholic tradition and practices. They 
 summon people to prayer and worship.\n" \nMedroso continued, "As such, they 
 were inappropriate trophies of war. If ever it is true that  the rebels 
 used them as instruments of war, they did that act without the proper 
 permission from the proper authority or owner of the bells. The Diocese of 
 Cebu, a Corporation sole, which was the rightful owner of the Church of 
 Balangiga at the time of attack, did not give its permission to the rebels 
 to use the bells for such a purpose."\n\n"These bells should keep my people 
 in touch with the lives of their  parents and grandparents, their past, 
 their origin, their religious sentiments, their faith, their culture," said 
 Bishop Medroso.  "It is for this reason that through the years my people in 
 Balangiga have been longing to have their Church Bells returned to their 
 church."\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/03/25913.php
SUMMARY:Return the Bells of Balangiga
LOCATION:St. Patricks Church\nMission Street (b/w 3rd & 4th St)\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/03/25913.php
DTSTART:20031017T020000Z
DTEND:20031017T030000Z
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