Mattis leads departure ceremony of Balangiga bells to Philippines

November 14, 2018

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis will lead a ceremony in Wyoming on Nov. 14 that will mark the return of the seized Balangiga bells to the Philippines after more than a century.

The rites will be held at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, a US Defense Department statement said Wednesday.

"At F.E. Warren Air Force Base, the secretary will attend a ceremony marking the beginning of the process to return of the Bells of Balangiga to the Philippines," the statement said.

Manila has been asking Washington to have those bells – took by American troops at a church in Eastern Samar as war booties during the Philippine- American war returned, but the US government was non-committal.

President Rodrigo Duterte demanded Washington return the relics. 

The US National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 allowed the transfer of to the Philippines after it was authorized by Mattis. 

One of the three church bells is at the US base in South Korea, while the two others are in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

One of the bells was used to signal an attack by Filipino fighters against American soldiers in Balangiga, Eastern Samar. The attack claimed the lives of more than 40 US soldiers. DMS