(Eagle News) — The United States said on Tuesday that it would “work” toward a resolution of the Balangiga bells issue raised by President Rodrigo Duterte in his second State of the Nation Address.
“We will continue to work with our Filipino partners to find a resolution,” US Embassy Press Attache Molly Koscina said in a statement.
She said the US was “aware that the bells of Balangiga have deep significance for a number of people.”
She said these included not only people from the Philippines, but also people from the United States.
The Balangiga church bells–three to be exact–were taken by US forces in 1901 as part of war booty during the Philippine-American war.
The President said there was historical pain attached to the bells taken by the US forces after they killed what historians estimated around 50,000 Filipinos aged 10 and above in Samar.
“Isauli naman ninyo. Masakit yun sa amin,” the President said in his two-hour SONA.
US ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, a native of South Korea where one of the three bells is located, was in the audience when Duterte made the pronouncement.
