Palace welcomes movement for return of Balangiga Bells by US
Malacanang welcomed on Tuesday any movement for the possible return of the Balangiga Bells to the Philippines by the United States.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, however, refused to give further comments on reports that the Bells would soon be returned to the Philippines.
"Given that the possession of the bells have not yet been turned over to the Philippine government, we are withholding any further comment on the matter until the last bell has been properly delivered to the country," he said.
"In the words of the President himself: 'It ain't here until it's here'," Panelo added.
He recalled that Duterte, in his second State of the Nation Address last year, expressed his desire for the return of the Balangiga Bells, explaining that they form part of the country's patrimony and they were taken at the cost of bloodshed of thousands of Filipinos.
ABS-CBN, quoting Dr. Rolando Borrinaga of the Committee on Historical Research of National Commission for Culture and the Arts, said that a ceremony will be held on November 15, Manila time, at the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming for the repatriation of the Balangiga Bells.
During the war, in 1901, the US soldiers took the Balangiga Bells in Balangiga town in Eastern Samar. Celerina Monte/DMS
