CHEYENNE, Wyoming -- The United States defense secretary plans to take part in a ceremony in Wyoming marking the beginning of a process to return three disputed church bells to the Philippines.
The Defense Department said Defense Secretary James Mattis plans to travel Wednesday (Thursday, November 15 in Philippines) to F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. Two of the bells of Balangiga, Eastern Samar are at the base, and the third is with the US Army in South Korea.
US Army soldiers took the bells after an attack killed 48 American troops in Balangiga town in Eastern Samar in 1901, during the US occupation of the Philippines.
Filipinos revere the bells as symbols of national pride. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly called for their return.
READ: Duterte to US: Return Balangiga bells
Wyoming officials have said the bells are memorials to American war dead and should not go back to the Philippines. (AP)