The Balangiga Bells were returned to its home country after 117 years due to the demand of the Filipino people and not by any government worker or official, President Rodrigo Duterte clarified on Thursday, December 13.
“Let me be very clear on this, here and now. The credit of the return of the Balangiga does not belong to any worker or officials of government. The return of the bells was upon the demand of the Filipino people,” Duterte said in a speech at an event in Barangay Pulang Lupa, Las Piñas City.
“Nobody but nobody should ever claim success for that,” he added.
The Balangiga Bells finally arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday, December 11, through a United States (U.S.) C-130 plane that came from an American military base in Okinawa, Japan.
[READ: Balangiga Bells return in PH]
These bells were taken by the American troops from a church in Balangiga town, Eastern Samar as war trophies in 1901.
Duterte first made an appeal to the U.S. government to bring back the historic bells during his second state of the nation address (SONA) in 2017. But before him, former President Fidel Ramos had already mentioned this matter to his counterpart, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, way back in the 1990s.
Duterte is set to attend the handover ceremony of the Balangiga Bells on Saturday, December 15.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said the President would skip the ceremony, but due to the people’s “persistent requests,” the spokesman, later on, said Duterte will be able to attend the event.
While he will be there during the handover ceremony, Duterte, however, said he will not attend the mass for Saturday’s event as he will just “float” along the coastal shores of Samar instead.
“It’s going to be like this. The American government will give it back to me. Then I will give it to the local executives. And the local executives will turn it over to its rightful owner, the people of Balangiga and ‘yung pari doon (and the priest there),” he said.
“Hanggang dito lang ako (This is where I end). I do not want to hear the mass. I have heard all the masses in the world,” he added.
The Balangiga Bells is expected to arrive in Eastern Samar on Friday, December 14.
The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese of Borongan earlier said it opposes a proposal that urges the government to place one of the Balangiga Bells in the National Museum, calling such move as “disrespectful mangling of history and the right of the Catholic faithful of Balangiga to their private property.”
[READ: Diocese of Borongan objects transfer of one Balangiga bell to National Museum]