MANILA: The United States will return to the Philippines church bells seized by American forces in a bloody campaign more than a century ago, its embassy said on Sunday, following a demand by President Rodrigo Duterte.
American forces took three bells from the Catholic church of Balangiga town on the eastern island of Samar in 1901 as war booty in what historians said was a particularly brutal military operation in the new US colony.
Duterte and previous Philippine governments had urged Washington to return the bells, with the president often raising the issue in his anti-American tirades as he builds closer ties with China and Russia.
The US had initially given a non-committal response to Duterte’s demands but on Sunday said it would return the bells.
“The Secretary of Defense has notified Congress that the Department (of Defense) intends to return the Bells of Balangiga to the Philippines,” said Molly Koscina, spokeswoman for the US embassy in Manila.
“We’ve received assurances that the Bells will be returned to the Catholic Church and treated with the respect and honor they deserve,” she added, saying there was no date scheduled for the move.
Duterte’s spokesman welcomed the announcement.
Two of the bells are installed at a memorial for US war dead in the state of Wyoming, while the third is with US forces in South Korea.
Some US politicians oppose the dismantling of the memorial, and the issue had sparked an emotional response from the descendants of American soldiers who served in the Philippine campaign.
The Philippines, a Spanish colony for centuries, was ceded to the United States in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War. The country gained independence from the US in 1946.
The brutal Samar campaign was launched about a month after Filipino rebels killed 34 US troops in Balangiga on September 28, 1901, according to a US Army War College research paper.
Seven other American soldiers perished during the escape from Balangiga, and US reinforcements razed the town the day after, it added.
Then-Philippine president Fidel Ramos first sought but failed to recover the bells during a 1998 Washington trip.
Duterte, who took office in mid-2016, demanded the return of the bells during his State of the Nation address last year: “Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are not yours. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage.”
US to return war booty church bells to Philippines
US to return war booty church bells to Philippines
- The US will return church bells to the Philippines troops seized in a bloody campaign more than a century ago
- Duterte and previous Philippine governments had urged Washington to return the bells
Pope Leo XIV calls for global truce on Christmas Day
- Pope Leo expressed “great sadness” that “apparently Russia rejected a request” for truce
CASTEL GANDOLFO: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing “great sadness” that “apparently Russia rejected a request” for one.
“I am renewing my request to all people of good will to respect a day of peace — at least on the feast of the birth of our Savior,” Leo told reporters at his residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire saying it would only give a military advantage to Ukraine.
“Among the things that cause me great sadness is the fact that Russia has apparently rejected a request for a truce,” the pope said.
Referring to conflicts in general, Leo said: “I hope they will listen and there will be 24 hours of peace in the whole world,” he added.
Ukraine on Tuesday pulled out troops from a town in the east of the country after fierce battles with Russian forces as relentless strikes by Moscow killed three civilians and cut power to thousands in freezing winter temperatures.
There was no sign of an imminent breakthrough after top negotiators from both Russia and Ukraine were in Miami last weekend for separate meetings with US officials seeking a deal to end almost four years of fighting.
Pope Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month.
Asked if he would accept Zelensky’s invitation to visit Ukraine, Leo later said “I hope so,” but cautioned it was not possible to say when such a trip would be possible.
He also said that seeking peace in Ukraine without European diplomatic involvement was “unrealistic” and warned US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan risked a “huge change” in the transatlantic alliance.
