THE United States Defense Department has decided to return the Balangiga Bells to the Philippines, about 117 years after they were taken as war booty by American soldiers.
In a social media post, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) said US Defense Secretary James Mattis signed the papers endorsing the return of the bells.
Under the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 signed by President Donald Trump on December 12, 2017, the US Defense Secretary has the authority to decide on the return of the Balangiga Bells.
In a statement issued Saturday, Deputy Press Attache Trude Raizen of the U.S. Embassy in Manila said Mattis has notified Congress about his decision.
"No specific date has been identified for the return of the Bells. We've received assurances that the Bells will be returned to the Catholic Church and treated with the respect and honor they deserve,” the statement read.
"We are aware that the Bells of Balangiga have deep significance for a number of people, both in the United States and in the Philippines," it added.
The PCOO said Mattis signed the papers on Friday, August 10, while residents of Balangiga town in Samar celebrated their fiesta in honor of patron saint San Lorenzo de Martir.
President Rodrigo Duterte called on the US government to return the Balangiga Bells during his State of the Nation Address in 2017.
The three church bells were taken as war booty by American soldiers during the Philippine-American War in 1901.
The tolling of the bells in 1901 was the signal for the Filipino revolutionaries to attack the American soldiers who had occupied Balangiga.
The Americans burned the church as reprisal, but took the bells as well as a 400-year-old British Falcon cannon from the town plaza. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)