For whom the Balangiga bells toll

“Balangiga: Howling Wilderness” poster by Dina Gadia

Long before President Duterte demanded for the return of the Balangiga bells to the Philippines in his second State of the Nation Address, a Filipino filmmaker had already started work on a movie on this bleak chapter in our nation’s history.

Filmmaker Khavn dela Cruz told the Inquirer that QCinema organizers had picked his film, “Balangiga: Howling Wilderness,” as an entry in its next edition in October.

Now, for a brief history lesson: In 1901, after the death of 48 American soldiers, Gen. Jacob H. Smith ordered “the killing of every Filipino male older than 10 years old” in a retaliatory campaign against the townspeople of Balangiga, Eastern Samar.

According to history books, Smith’s goal was to turn the town into a “howling wilderness.” There are conflicting reports on the Filipino fatalities—with varying accounts placing the number of deaths at 2,000 and 50,000.

Adding insult to injury, the Americans then took the bells of Balangiga’s church as war trophy. One of the bells is now in Camp Red Cloud in South Korea, while two others are in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Khavn dela Cruz

There have been several attempts to turn this historical incident into a movie. Dela Cruz, however, has a different take on the tragedy. He explained: “I’ve always been partial to stories with strong elements of absurdity. The Balangiga massacre of 1901 is full of black comedy.”

He started his research five years ago and found a slew of interesting twists and turns in the narrative.

“That some Balangiganon men wore women’s dresses before slaughtering the abusive Americans. That it was a time of drought and famine … when some people resorted to eating dogs to survive. The absurdity of a war waged between guns and bolos. The statistics in the newspapers: 300 Filipinos dead versus one American injured. At iba pang kabalastugan at kababalaghan (And other inanities and mysterious phenomena),” Dela Cruz enumerated.

The movie was pushed to the backburner for a while, until last year, when prize-winning screenwriter Jerry B. Gracio drafted a script that Dela Cruz submitted to QCinema for funding.

The movie tells the story of a 10-year-old boy and his grandfather, who fled the town on the eve of the carnage on a carabao. The kid later finds an infant in a sea of corpses. The two boys then struggle to survive the American occupation.

Asked about the free plug during the Sona, Dela Cruz quipped: “Nakatunog lang si Duterte! (He got wind of it!)”

Gracio told the Inquirer: “As a Waray, and a Filipino, I was happy that the President called for the return of the Balangiga bells. It’s about time the bells are returned to the people… since they’re part of our heritage as a nation. For as long as the United States treats the bells as war booty, the wounds inflicted on Samar, which was turned into a howling wilderness, would never be healed.”

According to Dela Cruz, the shoot will begin “this month, rain or shine.” “The film will be in the Waray language. I am working with Waray actors from Samar and Leyte. It’s hard to find Waray-speaking actors in Manila.”

The director reported that the project was currently in “the last stages of financing.”

The Philippine premiere is set at the QCinema, which runs from Oct. 19 to 28.