Obama backs pension for Pinoy war vets

HONOLULU – US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama supports a bill that would award pension benefits to Filipinos who fought under the US flag during World War II when their country was a US colony.

Obama issued a statement this week urging his colleagues in Senate to provide the veterans with the recognition he says they deserve.

“Approximately 250,000 Filipino troops joined American forces to fight in World War II, but too many of these heroes are still being denied benefits,” said the statement, which was dated Monday and appeared on his campaign Web site.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee already has passed a broad bill that includes the benefit measure. The full Senate has yet to vote on the legislation.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Burr, opposes the Filipino veterans measure. He’s submitted an alternative bill that excises that portion of the legislation, saying the government should instead spend its money on veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat and chairman of the veteran affairs committee, backs the Filipino veterans bill. Akaka is also a US veteran of World War II.

The veterans joined units under US command at a time when US law mandated that all Philippine citizens owe allegiance to the US.

After the war, however, Congress passed the Rescission Act of 1946, stripping Filipino veterans of their status as US veterans and denying them the same benefits available to other veterans of US military service. – AP