War vets in RP ignored by US bill

WASHINGTON – About 34,000 Filipino soldiers who fought for Uncle Sam in World War II but chose to remain home have been left out in the cold under a new health care bill filed in the US Congress. The 11,000 or so who emigrated to the US are the lucky ones.

"It pains my heart that the people who are in greater financial distress and are much larger in number are being neglected," Philippine Ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario said Wednesday on the eve of his testimony before a House veterans affairs subcommittee on health to press for benefits for veterans back home.

"These people gave the United States the same commitment and loyalty as those now living in the US and yet because they are living in the Philippines they are not being given the same attention," Del Rosario told The STAR in an interview.

It seems ironic that these 34,000 veterans, most of them in their 70s and 80s, who have been fighting to be placed on equal footing with GIs now find themselves struggling for parity with their own countrymen, albeit US citizens now or permanent residents in the United States.

A delegation of Filipino war veterans from Manila has arrived here to press Congress to give them minimum health care benefits as recognition of their sacrifice.

The delegation includes Rep. Thomas Dumpit, chairman of the House committee on veterans affairs, vice chairman Rep. James Gordon, Col. Emmanuel de Ocampo, president of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines and Commodore Artemio Arugay, administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office.

Delegation members say they understand why US legislators are more sympathetic toward veterans in their constituencies because of their potential clout come election time in November. Nevertheless veterans in the Philippines should not be totally neglected.

At the center of the controversy is a new bill "Health Care for Filipino World War II Veterans Act," filed in the House of Representatives Tuesday. This supplants two separate pensions and medical benefits bills – Senate Bill 1042 which would have cost the US government $60 million a year and the House version, HR 491 "The Filipino Veterans Equity Act" which would have cost $325 million a year.

Gordon said he was under the impression that Congress would debate one or both of the bills, not replace it with a new measure.

He said if the new bill was not reworded to include veterans in the Philippines, on return home he would consider filing a resolution in the House asking President Arroyo to intercede with the Americans or ask for renegotiations.

The new bill proposes about $12 million annually for healthcare for US based Filipino veterans, $500,000 for New Philippine Scouts in the US and $2.5 million as dependency indemnity compensation for widows of veterans.

An earlier commitment of a $500,000 grant for the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City given by US Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi was not included in the new bill.

However, Principi told the visiting Filipino delegation he would fund it from his own budget, provided there was money.

Also not included was a proposal to send US military medical teams to the Philippines on a regular basis to help sickly veterans in the provinces.

Del Rosario said at a meeting he and delegation members had with Principi Tuesday they proposed the US veterans chief accelerate the grant-in-aid funding from $500,000 to $2.5 million for the first year to significantly improve the Quezon City facilities for veterans who do not have long to live.

He said he was not worried where the money would come from. "If Principi provides that commitment he will have to find the money whether it comes from his budget or from Congress."

"Unhappy as we are, this bill moves the cause forward and we should lobby to make sure it passes Congress. Later we can add on to it," Del Rosario added.

If approved the bill will take effect in October at the start of US fiscal year 2003.