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Duterte scraps attendance at Balangiga bells handover ceremony at Villamor Air Base


President Rodrigo Duterte has canceled his attendance to the ceremony marking the handover of the Balangiga bells by the United States to the Philippines on Tuesday in Pasay City.

On Monday, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary for Media Relations Mia Reyes-Lucas said in a message to reporters that Duterte would no longer attend the event to be held at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

Instead, Duterte will take part in another handover ceremony in Balangiga town in Eastern Samar on December 15, according to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo.

"Pupunta na siya sa town of Balangiga [sa December 15]. Originally hindi siya pupunta sa Balangiga town for the turnover," Lorenzana said in a chance interview. 

Panelo said the President's decision came following a recommendation from Lorenzana.

The three bells are now in the US military base in Okinawa, Japan, and will be flown to Villamor Air Base in the Philippines by noon on December 11. The welcome ceremony will be attended by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim.

The bells will later be airlifted to Eastern Samar by a Philippine Air Force plane for their handover to church officials in Balangiga town on December 15, in time for the first Simbang Gabi in the early hours of December 16.

"We consider the occasion as an affirmation of our strong and enduring relations with our long-standing ally, the United States, as we thank them for this gesture that would formally put a closure to a tragic and contentious episode in both our countries' history," Panelo said. 

Duterte himself demanded for the return of the bells, explaining in his 2017 State of the Nation Address that they form part of the country's patrimony and they were taken from a church in Balangiga, Eastern Samar at the expense of the lives of thousands of Filipinos.

Last August, the President renewed his call for the return of the bells as he raised the question on whether the passage of time can "cure an injustice."

In 1901, US soldiers killed thousands of Filipinos, including women and children in the central Philippines town of Balangiga in response to the death of 48 US soldiers by Filipino guerillas during the American occupation.

Two of the three bells had been displayed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming while the third one was with a US Army regiment in South Korea. — RSJ, GMA News

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