Palace welcomes reported imminent return of Balangiga bells to PHL

Two Balangiga bells exhibited at Fort D.A. Russel, now F. E. Warren Air Force Base located in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the United States. (Photo courtesy wikimedia commons)

(Eagle News)—The Palace on Tuesday, Nov. 13, welcomed the imminent return of the historic Balangiga bells to the Philippines.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said it was President Rodrigo Duterte himself who expressed his desire for the return of the three bells, which the Americans took as war trophies from Eastern Samar in 1901.

“(The President explained) that they form part of our country’s patrimony and they were taken at the cost of bloodshed of thousands of Filipinos,” he said.

Panelo refused to comment any further, “until the last bell has been properly delivered to the country.”

“In the words of the President himself: it ain’t here until it’s here,” he said.

President Duterte had lashed out at the Americans for taking the bells in his second State of the Nation Address.

The bells–two in the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and one in a US military facility in South Korea–would reportedly be returned after a military ceremony in Wyoming.

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