Duterte demands return of Balangiga Bells from US

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday demanded from the United States the return of the bells that were seized as war booty from a church in Balangiga, Eastern Samar more than a century ago.

In his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), Duterte brought up atrocities committed by the Americans before the colonizers became the Philippines' treaty allies.

"The church bells of Balangiga were seized by the Americans as spoils of war," he said, noting these represented the heroism of Filipinos who resisted Americans.

"Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage. Isauli naman ninyo. Masakit 'yun sa amin."

Two of the three bells of Balangiga are displayed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

They are part of a memorial to 46 U.S. troops killed by Filipino insurgents in 1901.

A third bell is with a U.S. Army regiment in South Korea.

Previously, Duterte brought up the United States' human rights violations against the Moros in his speech before the ASEAN-East Asia Summit in Laos in September last year.

Duterte, in the presence of US President Barack Obama, launched into an impromptu speech on the US' pacification campaign in Mindanao in the 1900.

Thousands of deaths were attributed to the US campaign in southern Philippines at the time. —NB, GMA News