Palace welcomes US pledge for Balangiga Bells resolution
Malacañang welcomed yesterday the United States’ (US) willingness to help in returning the Balangiga Bells to the Philippines.
Earlier, US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim expressed that the US will be working with their Filipino partners to find a reso-
lution on the recovery of the artifacts, which President Duterte referred to as part of Philippine heritage.
“We welcome US Ambassador Sung Kim’s remarks on trying ‘to reach an early resolution on the Balangiga Bells’,” Malacañang said.
“The Philippine government will continue to work with the US to pave the way for the rightful return of the Balangiga Bells to the country,” the Palace added.
The Palace also said that the government is committed to continue to lay the path towards the restoration of the country’s dignity as a nation.
President Duterte, during his two-hour State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) last July 24 appealed to the US government to return the Bells as it has a deep meaning to the country.
“Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonizers and sacrificed their lives in the process,” he said.
Balangiga letter Before Duterte’s appeal in his SONA, the parish church in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, had already written the US government earlier this month to air the same appeal.
Dr. Rolando O. Borrinaga, national secretary on Historical Research of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), told The Manila Bulletin in Tacloban City, Leyte, that the Saint Martin de Martyr Parish in Balangiga had written the US government for the return of the two bells.
Borrinaga said Balangiga Parish Priest Fr. Serafin Tybaco made the appeal to Col. Stacey Huser, base commander of the US Airbase in Wyoming.
He said Tybaco is still waiting for Huser’s reply.
Borrinaga said Tybaco wrote the letter in support of the petition by US war veterans during their recent national convention where they called for the return of the bells.
He said there is a new campaign in the United States for the return of the two bells.
Borrinaga said the resolution of Eastern Samar Rep. Ben P. Evardone made after the SONA has no impact in the campaign for the return of the bells because it is a veteran-to-veteran issue.
The bells were taken by the US soldiers from the town’s church following the Balangiga massacre in 1901 during the Philippine-American War.
One bell is in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Red Cloud, in South Korea, while two others are in a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
According to historical records, at least one of the bells had pealed to signal the surprise attack by the Filipinos while the American troops were eating breakfast. (With a report from Nestor L. Abrematea)