Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his State of the Nation Address Monday at the Philippine Congress in Quezon City, Philippines. Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA

July 24 (UPI) -- Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte on Monday demanded the U.S. government return church bells that American soldiers took from Samar island more than a hundred years ago.

"Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. Return them to us. This is painful for us," Duterte said during his State of the Nation address before the Philippine Congress in Quezon City.

U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim, who was in attendance, showed no emotion as his face was flashed on the large screen.

Last September, Duterte also spoke about the Balangiga massacre before members of the Philippine Air Force.

"That was the time that 10 years old and above, was massacred by the Americans, and got the bell(s), and until now, they hijacked it, stole it and never returned it to us," Duterte said last year.

On Sept. 28, 1901, Filipinos attacked American troops in Balangiga, killing nearly 50 members of the 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment.

In response, U.S. Gen. Jacob Smith ordered his troops to turn the island of Samar into a "howling wilderness." Around 2,500 Filipinos died.

One church bell is in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at Camp Cloud, South Korea. The two others are on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenee, Wyo.

In Wyoming, the bells are displayed as part of a memorial to the U.S. troops killed. The exhibit includes a 7-foot Queen Mary Tudor cannon forged in 1557 that also was seized.

In 2009, a resolution in the U.S. House to return the bells died. In 2013, when Samar was among the islands devastated by the supertyphoon, there was petition to have the bells returned. In 2016, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point returned a bell also taken in 1901 to the Saints Peter and Paul Church in Bauang, La Union.

Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for the U.S. military community, reported that bells were routinely taken as souvenirs but were sometimes removed so they were not melted down to make weapons.</s>Follow Rappler’s live coverage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address on July 24, 2017 at Batasang Pambansa</s>Once again, it was a tough-talking President Rodrigo Duterte who faced the nation, declaring “unrelenting war” and an uncompromising stance against illegal drugs, Islamic extremism and now against the communist-led rebellion, destructive mining operations, graft and corruption and against poverty.

As he spoke of his government’s decision to chart an independent foreign policy, he spoke kindly of the new-found cooperation with China but reminded the nation about a time in history when American soldiers turned the town of Balangiga in Samar into a “howling wilderness” by killing hundreds of Filipino men and boys and claiming the Balangiga bells as its war bounty.

During the same speech, the President, also:

* Asked the Supreme Court to reconsider temporary restraining order on reproductive health implants.

* Announced that he has raised to P1 billion the budget for the welfare fund for Overseas Filipino Workers.

* Warned corrupt government officials that he has zero tolerance for grafters in government service.

President Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address (Sona) was made more striking by his colorful language as he veered away from his prepared speech and spoke at times in Cebuano as he declared his positions on the drug war and the decision to suspend talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

The President also took his two-hour speech to push for his legislative agenda.

The President also did not minced words and slammed his critics before lawmakers, diplomats and government officials.

The President said the fight against illegal drugs, which has so far claimed over 7,000 lives, will continue and would be “unrelenting” even if criticism would continue to mount over human right issues.

He once again slammed United Nations for criticizing his drug war and called for the reimposition of death penalty.

Mr. Duterte said Congress should pass the death penalty on drug-related offenses, insisting that in the Philippines, a criminal who took one’s life should pay for the offense with his own life.

“I ask Congress to act on all pending legislation to reimpose death penalty on heinous crime,” Duterte said.

He said the death penalty under the Revised Penal Code was not only meant for retribution but also to prevent the criminal from killing another person again. “In the Philippines, it’s really an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Mr. Duterte said. “You took a life, then you must pay [for] it with life.”

He said he did not agree with the belief a criminal mind could be reformed.

“You can’t place premium on the human mind, that you will go straight. Nobody can,” he said.

Mr. Duterte decried that being too “lenient” on drug criminals, in the hope that they could be reformed, would only allow them to commit more crimes once released from prison.

“You are soon to be lenient about this son of a bitch, a human being that has a virulent brain and his enemy is society,” President Duterte said.

While he stressed that the pursuit for peace will continue up to the last day of his administration, he was stood firm on his decision to halt all talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF.

“Kayong sa left, I will not talk to you. why should I?” he said, even as he called on Jose Maria Sison, the self-exiled founder of CPP, whom he said is now suffering from colon cancer, to give up the fight.

“Napura na ko (I’ve had enough),” he said in Cebuano, to explain about what he said was the duplicity of the communist negotiators who said they wanted peace but attacked and killed soldiers, policemen and ambushed even members of the Presidential Security Group.

He said there was also no compromise with Islamic extremists as he once again justified why he needed to extend martial law in Mindanao up to the end of the year.

Imposing martial law was a means to quell rebellion by Islamic State (IS)-inspired militants and extending martial rule beyond 60 days is needed to ensure that those who managed to flee from the war in Marawi City would not be able to form new cells elsewhere in Mindanao or in other parts of the country.

The President assured the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) of his solid support for the two organizations.

“For soldiers and policemen risking their lives for our country and democracy, I have your backs,” he said.

Whatever the troops will do, Duterte said “I hold myself, me and me alone should be responsible.”

He also lauded the efforts of the government troops fighting in the conflict-torn Marawi City.

“They are the silent heroes who risk their lives every day for our country’s security,” he said.

The President said his administration would make it a “non-negotiable” policy to protect the environment from the destructive effects of mining.

Duterte demanded all mining companies to clean up the adverse effects of their mining operations.

“Reasonable and sustainable development is what we advocate and require,” he said. “The protection of the environment must be made a priority ahead of mining and all other activities that adversely affect one way or the other. This policy is non-negotiable.”

Mr. Duterte said he would hold all mining companies and officials “responsible for the full cleanup, restoration, rehabilitation of all areas damaged by mining activities and the extension of all necessary support to all communities that have suffered.”</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Latest on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s state of the nation speech (all times local):

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he will not talk to communist guerrillas because of recent attacks and is threatening to order troops and police to shoot left-wing protesters who commit civil disturbance “even if I have to bury thousands of Filipinos.”

The tough-talking leader used his second state of the nation address before Congress on Monday to explain his decision last week to scrap preliminary peace talks with communist rebel leaders in Europe as a result of the attacks, including one that wounded five presidential guards last Wednesday in a southern town.

“You in the left, I will not talk to you. Why should I?” he said, accusing the Maoist insurgents of insincerity. He also vented his anger toward a group of poor slum dwellers who took over a housing project intended for government security forces.

“You do anarchy, I will order the soldiers and the police to shoot. Even if I have to bury thousands of Filipinos. Do not do that to me,” Duterte said. Some police officials in the audience applauded.

It’s the latest discord that has hampered talks between the guerrillas and Duterte’s administration. The communist rebellion has raged for 48 years, making it one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.

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.

Despite international and domestic criticism, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he will not stop his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and warns 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.

Waving red flags, several thousand left-wing protesters have marched with an effigy of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the House of Representatives to demand he deliver on promises made in his first state of the nation speech last year, from holding peace talks with communist insurgents to improving internet speed.

Riot police, without batons and shields to underscore a policy of maximum tolerance toward demonstrators, separated the protesters from a smaller group of Duterte supporters outside the heavily guarded building, where Duterte delivered this year’s state of the nation speech on Monday.

Inside the hall, left-wing legislators sought ingenious ways to protest. Rep. Emmie de Jesus, who represents the Gabriela women’s party-list group, wore native clothes with beadwork reading “Regular Jobs Now,” a criticism of contractual work without benefits.

Another lawmaker, Arlene Brosas, wore a black dress with a hand-painted message by a former political prisoner saying “No to Martial Law.” Duterte won congressional approval on Saturday for an extension of martial law in the south to deal with the siege of Marawi city by pro-Islamic State group militants, the worst crisis he has faced since taking power last year.

Copyright © 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>The Latest on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's state of the nation speech (all times local):

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in a rare move, has met with thousands of left-wing protesters after his annual state of the nation address, but was angered when some heckled him.

"Shut up first. I don't want to face you if you are like that," Duterte told the activists, a few of whom interrupted him several times. Some shouted, "We want peace talks!"

They were referring to preliminary peace talks with communist rebels that Duterte halted following rebel attacks on security forces, including an ambush last week of presidential guards in the south. Five of his security men were hurt, but Duterte was not in the area.

"You can shout at me here and disrespect me but this is the last time that I will talk to you," said Duterte, who in the past has called himself the first leftist Philippine president. He called for mutual respect, adding he was once like the activists.

In a news conference after his confrontation with the protesters, he said he was categorically putting an end to peace talks with the communist rebels.

He said the left should understand that "You cannot ambush me and ask me to talk to you."

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he will not talk to communist guerrillas because of recent attacks and is threatening to order troops and police to shoot left-wing protesters who commit civil disturbance "even if I have to bury thousands of Filipinos."

The tough-talking leader used his second state of the nation address before Congress on Monday to explain his decision last week to scrap preliminary peace talks with communist rebel leaders in Europe as a result of the attacks, including one that wounded five presidential guards last Wednesday in a southern town.

"You in the left, I will not talk to you. Why should I?" he said, accusing the Maoist insurgents of insincerity. He also vented his anger toward a group of poor slum dwellers who took over a housing project intended for government security forces.

"You do anarchy, I will order the soldiers and the police to shoot. Even if I have to bury thousands of Filipinos. Do not do that to me," Duterte said. Some police officials in the audience applauded.

It's the latest discord that has hampered talks between the guerrillas and Duterte's administration. The communist rebellion has raged for 48 years, making it one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.

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.

Despite international and domestic criticism, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he will not stop his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs and warns 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.

Waving red flags, several thousand left-wing protesters have marched with an effigy of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the House of Representatives to demand he deliver on promises made in his first state of the nation speech last year, from holding peace talks with communist insurgents to improving internet speed.

Riot police, without batons and shields to underscore a policy of maximum tolerance toward demonstrators, separated the protesters from a smaller group of Duterte supporters outside the heavily guarded building, where Duterte delivered this year's state of the nation speech on Monday.

Inside the hall, left-wing legislators sought ingenious ways to protest. Rep. Emmie de Jesus, who represents the Gabriela women's party-list group, wore native clothes with beadwork reading "Regular Jobs Now," a criticism of contractual work without benefits.

Another lawmaker, Arlene Brosas, wore a black dress with a hand-painted message by a former political prisoner saying "No to Martial Law." Duterte won congressional approval on Saturday for an extension of martial law in the south to deal with the siege of Marawi city by pro-Islamic State group militants, the worst crisis he has faced since taking power last year.</s>'They are ours. They belong to the Philippines,' President Duterte tells the US in his SONA 2017, with the American ambassador in the audience

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte told the United States on Monday, July 24, to return the iconic bells that led to a 1901 massacre, the US military's worst single defeat in the Philippines.

The Balangiga bells, once found in Balangiga Church in Eastern Samar, had been taken by the Americans as spoils of war.

"Give us back those Balangiga bells," Duterte said in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

"They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage," he added.

"Isauli naman ninyo. Masakit 'yan sa amin," he also said. (Please return it. That is painful for us.)

Duterte made these remarks in the presence of US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, who had a neutral reaction when his face was shown in the government's livestream. This comes as Duterte slams the US for supposedly meddling in his anti-drug campaign.

Rappler is still trying to reach the US embassy for comment as of posting time.

Signaling a historic siege, the bells led to the US military's so-called worst single defeat in the Philippines. In what is known as the Balangiga Massacre, locals outsmarted and killed 48 out of 74 US troops in 1901.

More than 3,000 online petitioners also urged the US in 2014 to return the Balangiga bells. When then US President Barack Obama visited the Philippines that year, however, the US leader said nothing about these so-called spoils of war. – Rappler.com</s>PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte called on the United States to return the bells taken by its soldiers from a church in Balangiga, Eastern Samar in 1901 during the Philippine-American War.

“Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage. Isauli naman ninyo (Bring them back). Masakit iyon sa amin (It is painful to us),” the President said in his State of the Nation Address on Monday.

Gen. Jacob Smith ordered soldiers to turn Samar into a “howling wilderness,” after Filipinos killed 48 American soldiers during breakfast on September 28, 1901. Three bells were taken from the town church after it was burned.</s>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has demanded the United States return church bells seized by American forces in a bloody campaign more than a century ago, in another blast at his country's traditional ally.

American forces took three bells from the Catholic church of Balangiga town on the eastern island of Samar in 1901 as war booty in what historians said was a particularly brutal military operation in the new US colony.

"Give us back those Balangiga bells. They are not yours. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage," Duterte said at his annual State of the Nation Address on Monday.

"Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonisers and sacrificed their lives in the process."

Two of the bells are installed at a memorial for US war dead in Wyoming, while the third is with US forces in South Korea.

Some US politicians oppose the dismantling of the memorial.

US embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina gave a non-committal reply on Tuesday to Duterte's demands.

"We are aware that the bells of Balangiga have deep significance for a number of people, both in the United States and in the Philippines," she said in an email to AFP.

"We will continue to work with our Filipino partners to find a resolution."

The brutal Samar campaign was launched about a month after Filipino rebels killed 34 US troops in Balangiga on September 28, 1901, according to a US Army War College research paper.

Seven other American soldiers perished during the escape from Balangiga, and US reinforcements razed the town the day after, it added.

Duterte on Monday repeated a Filipino account of the campaign that the commanding general, Jacob Smith, ordered Samar be turned into a "howling wilderness" and that all Filipino males aged 10 or above be killed.

A 1902 US court-martial convicted Smith of a minor offence in relation to the Samar campaign, while 39 other Americans were separately found guilty of torturing and shooting Filipino prisoners there, the US Army War College research paper said.

However none of them were jailed, according to the paper.

The then Philippine president Fidel Ramos first sought but failed to recover the bells during a 1998 Washington trip.

Duterte, a self-described socialist, has since his election last year worked to distance Manila from Washington while building closer ties with China and Russia.

The Philippine islands, a Spanish colony for centuries, were ceded to the United States in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War. The Philippines gained independence from the Americans in 1946.

Duterte has repeatedly lashed out at the US as ties have frayed, and last Friday vowed he would never visit the "lousy" country despite an earlier invitation extended by US President Donald Trump.</s>THE United States embassy assured the Philippine government that it would work on finding a solution on the issue involving the Balangiga bells of Eastern Samar, which President Rodrigo Duterte has been wanting to get back from the US and which the chief executive mentioned again in his second State of the National Address (SONA) Monday.

“Give us back those. They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage,” Duterte said in his SONA.

The US embassy, in a statement, said it was aware of the Bells of Balangiga and its importance to the people in the Philippines and US.

“We are aware that the Bells of Balangiga have deep significance for a number of people, both in the United States and in the Philippines,” the embassy said in a statement.

“We will continue to work with our Filipino partners to find a resolution,” it added.

The bells are currently housed at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The bells were part of the American soldiers’ “prize” after retaliating against the Filipinos who attacked a US garrison posted in the town of Balangiga in 1901. History says that at least one of the bells had tolled to signal the Filipinos’ assault that claimed the lives of over 40 US soldiers. In a reprisal, the US army killed every male over the age of 10 years old and took the bells. JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA</s>President Duterte during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) asked the US to return to the Philippines the three “Balangiga Bells” taken by American soldiers in 1901 as war booty from the parish church of Balangiga in Eastern Samar.

During the Philippine-American war, Filipino rebels ambushed on September 28, 1901, Company C of the 9th US Infantry Regiment, where 48 out of 78 US soldiers were killed and 22 were wounded.

In retaliation, US General Jacob H. Smith ordered every Filipino male above 10 years old should be killed. He instructed his subordinates to burn houses, take no prisoners alive and turn the interior of Samar into “a howling wilderness”. Following Smith’s orders, American soldiers burned 255 homes and killed 39 Filipinos over an 11-day period.

The departing US troops took with them the Balangiga Bells. One of these bells is at the US base Camp Red Cloud in Ujieongbu City, South Korea, still under the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment. The other two are at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA.

Historian Ambeth Ocampo once wrote: “During the Philippine revolution and the Philippine-American war, bells were confiscated by the enemy because they could be used to send signals far and wide in an age before the cellphone, or they could be melted down and made into weapons or bullets.” But the bells held greater cultural significance for early Filipinos. They were used to signal the start of masses, announce marriages, births and deaths, and warn of looming dangers, like fires, typhoons or attackers. According to Ocampo, early Filipinos lived bajo la campana—literally under the bell.

The return of the Balangiga Bells has always been a sore point in Philippine-American relations. The bells are emblematic of the Filipinos’ struggle for freedom. History is replete with nations’ treasures taken as booty of conquests. Some were voluntarily returned, others kept hostage.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has exhorted conquerors to return the treasures to the owners. The US, we hope and pray, will heed the call.
During the annual State of the Nation Address through the Congress of the Philippines, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has outright demanded that the United States return the controversial Balangiga bells, taken during one of the campaigns of the Philippine–American War as spoils of war. Previous attempts to recover the bells have all failed so far.