US senators debate Pinoy veteran pension measure

HONOLULU – US senators sparred over whether to pay long-promised pension benefits to Filipinos who fought for the US in World War II.

Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii, has sponsored a measure that would provide Filipino veterans with the pension benefits they were promised when they joined the war effort. Congress took away the benefits in 1946.

Filipinos fought against Japan during World War II under the US flag as part of the US Army Forces in the Far East. The US, which controlled the Philippines as a commonwealth at the time, was responsible for Philippine foreign affairs and national defense.

“These veterans have been denied these benefits for over 50 years. I believe it is time to give these elderly veterans the benefits that they earned and so richly deserve,” Akaka said in a speech on the Senate floor.

The pension provision, which would cost about $24 million in its first year, is included in a broader bill called the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007 that passed the committee in June. It still hasn’t come up for a full Senate vote.

But the ranking Republican on the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said providing pension benefits to Filipino veterans is the wrong priority at the wrong time because the US is now at war.

Sen. Richard Burr told lawmakers Thursday that the government should focus on the needs of US citizens and those injured in battle.

“This bill is also being used as a vehicle for a provision that would take money away from helping veterans of war – of the war on terror  – and instead sending the money overseas,” Burr said.

Burr on Thursday introduced his own version of the bill that deletes pension benefits for Filipino veterans and instead boosts funds for grants to wounded US veterans.

For example, he said his bill would provide retroactive payments of between $25,000 and $100,000 to all disabled veterans who were injured since 2001 – and not just in a war zone.

It would also increase grants to help wounded veterans make their homes wheelchair accessible and otherwise user-friendly for the disabled.

Burr has been blocking debate on the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007. But on Thursday he said he’s ready to debate the merits of his bill against the legislation passed by the committee.

Filipino veterans who helped resist the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in World War II already receive pension benefits if they live in the US.

But Washington hasn’t awarded those same pensions to Filipinos who live in their homeland. – AP