Manila
(AFP) - Church bells seized from the Philippines by US troops as war trophies
over a century ago were returned on Tuesday, in a bid to turn the page on a
difficult chapter between the historical allies.
Giving back
the three so-called Balangiga bells meets a decades-old demand from the former
US colony at a time when the two nations' ties have been rattled by President
Rodrigo Duterte's pivot to China.
"Returning
these bells is the right thing to do," US Ambassador Sung Kim said at a
sober handover ceremony on a Manila airfield, where a cheer went up when the
bells were pulled from wooden crates.
"It is
my great honour to be here at the closing of a painful chapter in our
history," he told the crowd that included people who had lobbied for years
to bring the bells home.
Residents
from Balangiga town pose for photos next to one of the three
Balangiga church
bells shortly after it arrived (AFP Photo/TED ALJIBE)
|
The bells
will be sent back later this week to the church in the central town of
Balangiga where they were looted by US soldiers avenging a surprise attack that
killed 48 of their comrades on September 28, 1901.
In
reprisal, the US commander Jacob Smith ordered the surrounding island of Samar
be turned into a "howling wilderness", resulting in the slaughter of
thousands of Filipinos and Balangiga's razing.
The return
of the bronze bells has been divisive with some US veterans and lawmakers, who
see them as a tribute to fallen American troops, while the Philippines hails
them as a symbol of its struggle for independence.
Two of the
bells had been on display in the US state of Wyoming and the other in South
Korea until being restored and flown to a Manila air base Tuesday aboard an
American military cargo plane.
The bells
were flown to a Manila Tuesday aboard an American military cargo
plane (AFP
Photo/TED ALJIBE)
|
'Ring
again after 117 years'
"It is
time for healing. It is time for closure. It is a time to look ahead as two
nations should with shared history and as allies," Philippine secretary of
defence Delfin Lorenzana said.
"After
117 years the sound of the bells will once again ring," he added.
Manila's
push for the bells' repatriation began in the 1990s and has had backing from Philippine
presidents as well as from the Catholic Church and historians, but also
supporters in the US.
Duterte,
73, bluntly called on Washington in a 2017 speech -- where Kim was in the
audience -- "Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are not yours."
Within
months of winning the presidency in mid-2016 he signalled his intention to
split with the Philippines' former colonial master and end a standoff with
Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.
The
president did not attend Tuesday's handover, but is due to speak at a ceremony
Saturday in Balangiga when the bells -– which weigh a combined 408 kilograms
(900 pounds) -– will be given back to the church.
Salvador
Panelo, the president's spokesman, claimed a lot of the credit for Duterte,
pointing to his "strong political will". However, experts said the
process had been complicated.
"No
single president can claim credit to it," Francis Gealogo, history professor
at the Ateneo de Manila University, told AFP. "The credit should be given
to the Filipino people who campaigned vigorously and actively."
A key
factor was also major American veterans' associations, including the largest
group Veterans of Foreign Wars, dropping their opposition to the bells being
given back.
VIDEO: Church bells seized from the Philippines by US troops as war trophies over a century ago have been returned in a bid to turn the page on a difficult chapter between the historical allies https://t.co/tOcymnf9Dc pic.twitter.com/9XV70sPtee— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 11, 2018
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