US Troops Arrive In Balangiga

Today in Philippine History (Philatelic Edition Series 2):

AUGUST 11, 1901

The Company C of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment arrived in Balangiga, the third biggest town of Samar, on orders to close its port to prevent and cut off supplies intended for Filipino forces. 

A few months earlier, Brigadier General Robert P. Hughes, the commander of the Department of the Visayas came up with a policy of food deprivation and property destruction all over Samar with the aim of ending the resistance and to close the ports of Balangiga, Guiuan and Basey. 

The Filipino forces operating in Samar were under the command of General Vicente Lukban who was sent by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in 1898 to govern the province. 

Although the relationship between the townspeople and the Americans were amicable at first, things started to change when Captain Thomas W. Connell, the commanding officer of the American unit ordered a clean up for the U.S. Army's inspector-general’s visit. 

The male residents were rounded up, and bolos and rice were confiscated which angered the people. 

They soon took matters in their own hands and on September 28, 1901, with the pealing of the church bells as their signal to attack, the people led by Valeriano Abanador, the police chief of the town and Captain Eugenio Daza, killed the Americans troops and only a handful were able to escape. 

This is known as the Balangiga Massacre. The American retaliation came with General Jacob H. Smith giving the orders to kill anyone over 10 years old.

(Design, concept, stamps and research: Richard Allan B. Uy) All rights reserved

Photo credit: wikipedia.org