After more than a century, the historical Balangiga bells taken by the US Army as war trophies will likely be returned to the country in December, an official from Manila Economic and Cultural Office said Sunday.
MECO Chairman Angelito Banayo said the United States will hand over the bells by Christmas this year.
“The Balangiga bells will be returned to the parish church of Balangiga in Eastern Samar, and directly therefore to the people of Balangiga,” Banayo said in his column in Manila Standard.
“They will ring out for the entire country, as a national treasure, as a relic of the indomitable spirit of our people for freedom and against foreign colonialism,” he added.
The expected return of the bells came after a month when President Rodrigo Duterte called on US officials and told them that no further discussions would be held unless the bells were returned.
He stressed the importance of the bells, adding that the memory still haunts locals in Samar as American soldiers took the bells along with the lives of many Filipinos.
The President said that passage of time cannot cure an injustice and the memory will still be there even after a century has passed.
“Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonizers and sacrificed their lives in the process,” he said during his 2017 State of the Nation Address.
“Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage. Give them back. It’s painful for us,” the President said.
He also emphasized that US armed forces reduced the Samar Island into a “howling wilderness.”
On Aug. 11, 2018, the US embassy in Manila announced that the US Defense Department had notified the US Congress of its intention to return the bells to the country.
“We’ve received assurances that the bells will be returned to the Catholic Church and treated with the respect and honor they deserve,” the embassy said in a statement.
No official date had been set as the return of the bells needs congressional concurrence.
The Palace said it was looking forward to working with the US government in paving the way for the return of the bells to the Philippines.
In September, Duterte had a “classified diplomatic meeting” with US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Yong Kim.
The US envoy said he had discussed shared goals, including defense priorities, an economic partnership with Duterte, and said the alliance between the two countries remained strong. Duterte, however, was quiet about the meeting.
The country has been asking the US for the return of the bells since 1958 as a Jesuit priest named Horacio de la Costa wrote to American military historian Chip Wards requesting his help for this purpose.
Former President Fidel Ramos even initiated a negotiation with US President Bill Clint to return the bells. Clinton agreed, but the outcome did not turn out well because of an apparent dispute with US military laws.
Some US veterans groups and lawmakers are against for the return of the bells, arguing that the bells are seen as memorials to fallen US soldiers.
In 1901, the Americans took the bells from the town church of Balangiga as trophies, following a massacre of the local residents, including the women and children. Two of the three bells are preserved at the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, while the third is with a traveling museum.