Return to owner
Roman Catholic priest Monsignor Pepe Quitorio (second from left) posing with other priests and officials before one of three church bells were officially returned to the Philippines. American occupation troops took the bells in 1901 from a Catholic church following an attack by machete-wielding Filipino villagers. The bells are revered by Filipinos as symbols of national pride.
MANILA: Church bells seized from the Philippines by the United States as war trophies over a century ago were returned in a bid to turn the page on a difficult chapter between the historical allies.
Returning the three so-called Balangiga bells meets a decades-old demand from the former US colony at a time when the two nations’ ties have been rattled by President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot to China.
An American military plane delivered the bells to a Manila airfield, where Philippine and American officials gathered ahead of a symbolic handover ceremony.
The bells were said to have signalled a surprise attack by machete-wielding Filipino revolutionaries that killed 48 US troops on Sept 28, 1901 in the central town of Balangiga.
In reprisal, US commander Jacob Smith ordered the surrounding island of Samar be turned into a “howling wilderness” and that all Filipino males aged 10 or above be killed.
Thousands of Filipinos were slaughtered, the town was razed and the bells were carted off as trophies. Two had been on display at a US air base in Wyoming and the other in South Korea.
The return of the bells has been divisive with some US veterans and lawmakers, who see them as a tribute to fallen American troops while the Philippines hails them as a symbol of its struggle for independence.
American officials have emphasised the return is an important step in closing a painful chapter between the two nations, which have close military, cultural and trade ties.
Manila’s push for the bells’ repatriation began in the 1990s and has had backing from Philippine presidents as well as from the Catholic Church and historians.
Duterte, 73, bluntly called on Washington in a 2017 speech to “Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are not yours”.
Duterte’s supporters have claimed his willingness to stand up to American influence was key to the bells’ return, but experts cautioned the process was much more complicated.
“No single president can claim credit to it,” Francis Gealogo, history professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said.
“The credit should be given to the Filipino people who campaigned vigorously and actively.” — AFP