MANILA, Philippines — Taking a snipe at the United States in his state of the nation address, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte asked America to return three church bells seized as spoils of war from the eastern Philippine village of Balangiga more than a century ago.
“Give us back those Balangiga bells,” Duterte said in his speech at the House of Representatives, attended by the U.S. ambassador and other diplomats. “They are part of our national heritage … return it to us, this is painful for us.”
Duterte, who calls himself a socialist, has had an antagonistic attitude toward the U.S. while bolstering ties with China and Russia.
Filipinos revere the Balangiga bells as symbols of their long struggle for independence. The bells gave the signal for insurgents to attack American soldiers who were occupying Balangiga after the U.S. took possession of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War.
Two of the three bells are displayed at the 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.
Talk about returning the bells has been a perennial issue in U.S.-Philippine relations.
Duterte also said he will not stop his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and warned that addicts and dealers have two choices: jail or hell.
Thousands of suspects have perished during the anti-drug campaign he launched after being sworn into office in June last year, sparking widespread criticism and threats of prosecution.
“Do not try to scare me with prison or the International Court of Justice,” he said Monday in his annual state of the nation address. “I’m willing to go to prison for the rest of my life.”
He reiterated his plea that Congress reimpose the death penalty for drug offenders and others.
“The fight will not stop until those who deal in (drugs) understand that they have to stop because the alternatives are either jail or hell,” Duterte said, to applause from his national police chief, Ronald del Rosa, and other supporters in the audience.
