29 September 2017•Update: 29 September 2017
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
President Rodrigo Duterte favors to be friendly with the United States, he said on Thursday.
"I would rather be friendly with them now with the US because the Americans have redeemed themselves and have helped us a lot," Duterte said at an event in Eastern Samar, Luzon, to commemorate the 116th Balangiga Encounter Day.
"There are so many factors involved but I'd rather be friendly to them now because aside from these episodes of, I said, sad incidents, overall the Americans also redeemed themselves a lot," he said.
According to GMA News, the President specifically mentioned the assistance given by the US to Filipino soldiers throughout the years, starting from World War II.
Duterte also said the US government's efforts to return the Balangiga bells to the Philippines influenced his change of attitude toward them.
Historically, Balangiga is the site of a siege that led to the US military's 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. The siege was signaled by the Balangiga bells, which the US eventually took as spoils of war.
"I was under advice that the negotiations are going on, that the government of America is looking for ways how to get out of this problem of the Balangiga bells because it remains to be not only the source of irritation but the source of a painful reaction, what really happened to our countrymen," he was quoted saying.
He admitted he was emotional when he delivered an impassioned remark during his last State of the Nation Address about the bells that were seized by the US Army as war booty in Balangiga, Eastern Samar.
Duterte, meanwhile, explained that the US partly helped "the Philippines when it was challenged by the Japanese occupation" during World War II.
"I would not say they were our saviors, but they are our allies and they helped us," Duterte said adding that "Even today, they provide crucial equipment to our soldiers in Marawi to fight the terrorists."
Duterte described previous US abuses as "water under the bridge."
Duterte's sudden change of his rhetoric against the US comes as Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano met with U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson and key congressional leaders in Washinton on Wednesday and pledged to continue working closely together on issues of mutual interest and concern.
