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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
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MANILA – Malacañang welcomed the United States ambassador’s statement on the possible return of three church bells that American forces seized as war spoils from the Philippines more than a century ago.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella emphasized that the return of the Balangiga bells is “important for our national pride.”
US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said the United States is committed to returning the bells named for the village from which they were taken in 1901.
Kim said the two governments have discussed the return of the church bells. The US is “deeply committed that the bells are returned to the Filipino people,” he said, but he did not specify when that would happen.
“The Philippines has been working for the rightful return of the Balangiga bells to the country for many years,” Abella said.
Filipinos revere the Balangiga bells as symbols of their long struggle for independence. The bells gave the signal for insurgents to attack American soldiers who were occupying Balangiga after the US took possession of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War.
“The Balangiga bells form part of our national heritage,” Abella stressed. “The return of these historical relics is important for our national pride, as these bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears.”
President Rodrigo Duterte, in his second State of the Nation Address in July, called on the US to return the Balangiga bells, which he said rightly belonged to the Philippines.
“They are part of our national heritage,” said the President. “Isauli naman ninyo. Masakit iyon sa amin.”
Two of the three bells are displayed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They are part of a memorial to 46 US troops killed by Filipino insurgents in 1901. A third bell is with a US Army regiment in South Korea.
There is “an ongoing discussion within the US government and the Philippine government to try and facilitate the return of these bells as quickly as possible,” Kim said but added that there were some issues that needed to be solved in the US.
“We want to return them,” the ambassador said. “I believe it’s the right thing to do.” (With The Associated Press/PN)
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