Two party-list representatives have filed a resolution in the House to ask the United States government to return the three Bells of Balangiga and other historical artifacts which were taken from the province of Samar as “souvenir” of the American occupation in the country more than 100 years ago.

Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Teodoro “Teddy” Casino and Neri Colmenares urged the American government to return the artifacts in order “to correct a historical wrong” committed against Filipinos during the Philippine-American War.

The Bells of Balangiga were forcibly taken by US military forces from the town of Balangiga in Samar island during the occupation of the Philippines by the United States 109 years ago, Casino and Colmenares said in their House Resolution No. 236.

“The Filipino people regard the said bells not as tools or spoils of war that should be kept as war trophy, but as historic and religious treasures made for the people of Samar that have become a significant part of Philippine heritage,” the solons explained.

Citing historical facts, the party-list legislators said that the Balangiga bells were used by a Filipino chief of police to signal an ambush on American occupation forces in the town of Balangiga in Eastern Samar, which was the nerve center of guerilla activities in 1901.

Rebels, disguised as women, smuggled weapons in small coffins which were carried to the church for an evening service the night before they launched an attack against the Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment in Balangiga in September, 1901.