Too many unqualified war veterans filing claims

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) disclosed yesterday that out of the 5,000 World War II veterans who filed their claims for additional compensation from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA), only 3,000 applicants are qualified to receive the $9,000 financial package that will be granted by the US government.

Defense Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, who is also the PVAO administrator, said the turnout of applicants has been huge because even those who are not qualified have applied for availment of the financial package.

Filipino military pensioners are taking their chances by filing their applications even though they are not included in the USDVA list, Carolina said.

More war veterans are expected to take their chances by filing their claims despite this development.

Carolina said PVAO records showed that there are only about 5,000 to 6,000 surviving war veterans in the country that the US government recognizes as genuine World War II veterans.

Most of these veterans are very old but still proceed to the processing centers to file their claim.

Carolina said that the USDVA is only looking for at least 20,000 Filipino veterans listed in the so-called Missouri list and therefore are qualified to avail of the US financial package.

Out of the 20,000 veterans, most have either died or have migrated to the US.

The US financial package to war veterans have filed their applications and have been clogging the processing of claims, Carolina said.

Carolina said the USDVA has already set up some 15 field offices nationwide, three in Metro Manila and the rest are in Northern and Southern Luzon, Visayas and in Mindanao to fast-track the processing of claims.