(Eagle News) — After 117 years, the Balangiga bells were finally returned to the Philippines on Tuesday, December 11.
These pictures taken by Eagle News Service reporter Mar Gabriel show the bells—two of which had been housed in a military facility in Wyoming, United States and another in a US military facility in South Korea—on display at the Villamor Airbase upon their arrival.
Defense officials led by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and US embassy officials led by US Ambassador Sung Kim led the turnover ceremony for the bells, which had been taken by American soldiers from Balangiga, Eastern Samar as war booty during the Filipino-American war in 1901.