US returns war bells to Philippines
CHEYENNE ( Wyoming): Three war-trophy bells seized by US troops over a century ago got a send-off back to the Philippines by US Defence Secretary James Mattis, who called the controversial decision to repatriate them an important gesture of friendship between the two countries.
Some veterans and officials in the US oppose returning the Bells of Balangiga, calling them memorials to American war dead.
But Filipinos revere the bells as symbols of national pride.
US Army soldiers took the bells after an attack killed 48 American troops in 1901, during the US occupation of the Philippines. Two of the Bells of Balangiga are at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, and the third is with the US Army in South Korea.
Philippine presidents, including current President Rodrigo Duterte, have repeatedly called for the bells’ return.
Now, President Donald Trump’s administration has agreed that bolstering the US relationship with a key international ally outweighs concerns at home, even among Republican political allies.
Mattis marked the start of a several-week process to return the bells to a church in the Philippines with a visit to the two bells at F.E. Warren.
With him was the Philippine ambassador to the US Jose Manuel G. Romualdez.
“History reminds us that all wars end. In returning the Bells of Balangiga to our ally and our friend, the Philippines, we pick up our generation’s responsibility to deepen the respect between our peoples,” Mattis said at the base.