Two bells looted decades ago by US soldiers from Bulacan church returned By Michaela P. del Callar 10/14/2011

Two bells looted decades ago by US soldiers from Bulacan church returned

By Michaela P. del Callar 10/14/2011

After more than a century, two small bells taken by American soldiers as war booty from a church in Bulacan province have been returned to the Philippines.

According to the Omaha World Herald, the Sisters of Mercy from Omaha, Nebraska acquired the bells and turned it over to Philippine consulate officials in Chicago, but how it found its way to the nuns’ possession remains a mystery.

The bells are reminders of the bloody war between the United States and Philippines, which took place from 1899 to 1902. At the end of the more than four-decade Spanish colonial rule, the US took over the Philippines, but prompted a revolt as Americans failed to give Filipinos the independence they had anticipated.

The Herald said the bells are connected by a hard block of black wood with a handle on top. A placard on the block of wood says the bells were taken from a church in Meycauayan, Philippines, “after bombardment by Utah Battery on March 29, 1899 by P.O. Thomas, Co. A Battalion of Engineers.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111014nat3.html