US to return bells

MANILA: The Philippines yesterday welcomed the US plan to return three church bells seized by American soldiers as spoils of war more than a century ago.

US Secretary of Defence James Mattis has notified the US Congress of the department’s plan to return the bells to the Philippines, reports the US Embassy in Manila.

But no specific date has been identified for the return of the bells, which were taken from the town of Balangiga in the eastern province of Samar in 1901, during the US colonisation of the Philippines.