Residents of the Balangiga town in Samar are ready and excited to receive the bells being brought home from the United States more than a century after these were taken as war trophies following gruesome clashes between US soldiers and locals, a local priest said Friday.

• US returns 'Bells of Balangiga' a century after clash

The people, the parish and the diocese are "excited, so happy, and so thankful," said Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, head of the Diocesan Committee on Balangiga Bells.

"The church is ready, the empty belfry is ready," he told ANC's Early Edition.

The US started the journey of the bells' repatriation to the Philippines on Thursday (Manila time). These will first be refurbished before they are sent home, according to Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez.

• Balangiga bells to be refurbished before return to PH: envoy