House Resolution on Balangiga bells now in US Congress

                    “Aside from the souvenir from Speaker (Pantaleon) Alvarez being given by his Chief of Staff Atty. Darren de Jesus, we gave Mr. Burks a copy of the Congress resolution on the return of Balangiga Bells,” he said.

                   Evardone, one of the authors of the resolution, said the US Speaker was not around because he was in Puerto Rico for relief operations.

                   As chairman of the House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries, Evardone attended the
three-day annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C. and the Philippine economic briefing in New York sponsored by Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered.

                    Last month, the House of Representatives unanimously approved HR 1337 seeking Washington’s return of the Balangiga bells which were seized by US Army in 1901 during the Philippine-American War.

                    HR 1337 expresses the Lower Chamber’s support for the appeal of President Rodrigo Duterte to the US government to return the Balangiga bells that were taken as “trophies of war” by the American military troops in 1901.

                 “Return the Balangiga Bells. It’s ours. It’s part of our heritage,” the resolution said. It was authored by Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez, House Majority Floor Leader Rudy Fariñas, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, Evardone and Northern Samar Rep. Raul Daza.