(Eagle News) — According to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin Jr., President Rodrigo Duterte will never visit the United States until the Balangiga bells are returned.
In a Twitter post, Locsin said this was what he told US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last year when she asked why the President was still not coming to the US.
“She took note and added when we get the bells, no more excuse not to accept Trump’s invitation,” Locsin said, posting a video of US Defense Secretary James Mattis and Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez during the turnover ceremony of two bells at Warren Airforce Base in Wyoming.
The video was taken by Foreign Affairs Acting Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato, who was also present in the event.
The three bells had been taken by US soldiers from Eastern Samar as war trophies.
Two of the bells are in Wyoming, while the other is in a US military facility in South Korea.
It was President Duterte, in his second state of the Nation Address, who lashed out at America for it to return the bells, which he said were part of the country’s patrimony.
