Lorenzana to US: Don’t keep bells as war booty

DEFENSE - na has called on the United States not to keep the looted Balangiga bells as their trophies from a massacre, saying that returning the bells to the Philippines would redound to a stronger relationship between Manila and Washington.

Lorenzana’s appeal came after Wyoming lawmakers opposed returning the bells taken by American forces as war booty after Filipino revolutionaries attacked US soldiers in Balangiga, Samar, in 1901, killing 48 of them.

The US military retaliated and killed hundreds of Filipino men, women and children.

“The return of the Balangiga bells will be a strong indicator of the sincerity of the Americans in forging a lasting relationship with the Filipino people and truly symbolic of what their government has referred to in the past as an ironclad alliance between our two countries,” Lorenzana said in a statement.

He added that he understood the resistance of officials from Wyoming, having lost American lives in the Balangiga incident.

Lorenzana, however, said the Filipinos suffered more than the Americans.

“It was a dark chapter in the shared history of our peoples, which should never be allowed to happen again,” he added.

“Let us not forget, however, that the time came when we set aside our differences and fought side by side against a common enemy in World War II,” the defense chief said.

He then called again on the US to return the bells.

“We call on the American people not to allow the bells to serve as trophies for atrocities that were committed by both sides on Philippine soil a very long time ago,” Lorenzana said.

He thanked US Defense Secretary James Mattis for his effort to write to the US Congress, saying it was “in the national security interest of the United States” to have the bells returned.

Last week, the US Embassy in Manila committed that the bells would be turned over to the Philippines.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said the US Department of Defense was coordinating with Lorenzana and his team for the expected return of the bells.

Two of the Balangiga bells are at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while the third one is with the US Army in South Korea.

President Rodrigo Duterte, during his second State of the Nation Address last year, demanded the return of the bells.