After more than a century of being away, the Balangiga Bells have finally found their way home.
The three bells arrived earlier today at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City aboard a United States Air Force C-130.
Two of the bells came from the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming while another came from an American base in South Korea, reported the Philippine Star.
The bells in Wyoming were first brought to Philadelphia for restoration before finally arriving in the Philippines, reported CNN Philippines.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said during the formal turnover of the bells today: “Now they are home and are going back to where they belong. It is a time for healing. It is a time for closure.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said the return of the bells is an indication of the good relationship between the Philippines and the U.S.
He said: “The bells’ return reflects the strong bonds and mutual respect between our nations and our peoples. It demonstrates our determination to honor the past and the sacrifices made together by Filipinos and Americans. And it heralds our bright future as friends, partners, and allies.”
President Rodrigo Duterte decided to skip the ceremonies and would attend the arrival ceremony of the bells in Balangiga instead, scheduled on Dec. 15, according to Rappler.
A Filipino official clarified that the bells were returned to the country thanks to the efforts of two American veteran organizations, and not through the work of the Duterte administration.
President Duterte previously told the American government in his State of the Nation Speech in 2017 to return the bells.
Rolando Borrinaga, the secretary of the National Committee on Historical Research of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), told the television show Bandila last month that the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion had passed resolutions allowing for the return of the bells.
He also said that there was no existing paper trail to prove that there was a campaign from the Philippines to bring the bells home.
The bells were taken as war booties by American soldiers from the town of Balangiga in Eastern Samar in 1901. They stole it after Filipino troops killed 48 American soldiers as revenge for forcing the locals to work in their camps.
Aside from stealing the bells, the Americans retaliated by killing an estimated 10,000 townspeople above the age of 10 years old upon the orders of General Jacob Smith, who told his men to turn the town into a “howling wilderness.” The incident became known as the Balangiga Massacre.
Several people have requested the bells to be returned to the country.
Former President Fidel Ramos first raised the topic of returning the bells to then U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1993 but other American officials rejected the request.
In 2014, an online petition asked then-U.S. President Barack Obama to return the bells to the Philippines but the request fell on deaf ears.
