A set of church bells seized by US soldiers in The Philippines more than 100 years ago are being returned to the country.
The Pentagon has reportedly confirmed that the famed ‘Bells of Balangiga’ – taken in 1901 during the Philippine-American War – will be returned but hasn’t yet announced a time-frame.
The bells, two of which are located at a US Air Force base in the state of Wyoming and a third on a US military base in South Korea, were seized from the burnt-out belfry of the Church of St Lawrence the Martyr in Balangiga in the wake of an attack by Filipino independence fighters in which some 48 American soldiers were killed. The ringing of the bells was said to be the signal for the attack.
Repatriation of the bells has long been sought by the Philippine Government and was mentioned by President Rodrigo Duterte in his State of the Nation address last year in which he said they were part of the country’s national heritage and noted that 28 Filipinos had died fighting Americans that day.
Randy Graza, the mayor of the town of Balangiga on the island of Samar, south-west of Manila told The New York Times that the bells should be returned “because they belong to us”. “It is part of our history”.
The move is being opposed by some members of Congress and veterans groups.
Republican Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Representative Liz Cheney reportedly issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the bells “are memorials to American war dead and should not be transferred to the Philippines”.
“While we have respect for the relationship between the United States and the government of the Philippines, we believe that moving the bells establishes a dangerous precedent for future veterans’ memorials,” they said.
