Pinoy war veterans to get initial compensation in April

WASHINGTON – The US government plans to hand out the first checks from a $198-million compensation fund to Filipino World War II veterans on April 9, the 67th anniversary of the fall of Bataan to Japanese forces. 

US and Filipino officials said the US Veterans Administration in Washington and the US embassy in Manila are working feverishly to complete the paperwork to pay out as many of the veterans as possible, basically reversing the Rescission Act of 1946 which stripped them of their GI benefits.

The fund provides for a one-time payment of $15,000 to Filipino veterans living in the United States who have become naturalized US citizens and $9,000 to those living in the Philippines. It is estimated that about 12,000 veterans live in the Philippines and 6,000 are in the US.

Compensation for Filipino veterans was inserted by Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii into a $787-billion economic stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17.

Celestino Almeda, 92, formerly of Laguna, said he was so excited he filed his papers at the VA office in Washington immediately after the bill was signed.

“The staff there did not know anything about it and told me to come back in a week. I must say that was a long week for me,” he told The STAR.

He said he would use the $15,000 he is due to receive as a down payment for a small house in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Asked how he felt about the prospect of receiving $15,000, Alberto Bacami, 98, said, “It’s not how much, but how well we’ve been finally recognized.”

Almeda and Bacami were among a few veterans who showed up at the Philippine embassy in Washington for a reception on Monday for a visiting Philippine congressional delegation here to thank their American colleagues for passing the compensation fund.

Filipino lawmakers headed by Zambales Rep. Antonio Diaz have made at least four trips to Washington over the last two years to lobby their US counterparts to support Filipino veterans.

As in any number of undertakings, there are many people who contributed their part to making the veterans issue a success.

But two in particular stand out – Sen. Inouye and Philippine ambassador Willy Gaa, whose first move upon arriving in Washington in 2006 was to hold a summit of disparate veterans’ factions and force them to agree on one course of action and stick to it.

A longtime supporter of pensions for Filipino veterans, Inouye, through sheer force of personality and as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, virtually steamrolled the opposition and inserted the compensation measure in the stimulus bill. 

He said Filipinos who served Uncle Sam in World War II and were promised postwar benefits deserved to be rewarded, and this was long overdue. “This episode is a blight upon the character of the United States and it must be cleansed,” he added.

In recognition of his work and to honor him, Rep. Diaz has filed a bill in the House of Representatives seeking to grant Inouye honorary Filipino citizenship.

Other important players include retired Maj. Gen. Delfin Lorenzana, head of the Veterans Affairs Office at the embassy, and Eric Lachica, former executive director of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans.

Lorenzana could be a victim of his own success and may be forced to close shop as soon as all veterans have received their compensation.

“I don’t much care about what happens from now on because I’ve succeeded in something close to my heart, being a veteran myself,” he said.

Still he wouldn’t mind staying for as long as he is needed.

For Lachica, it’s the end of 13 years of ups and downs. “I’m only sorry success didn’t come sooner, before the death of so many of my veteran friends,” he said.

Based on a 15-percent mortality rate for people 75 and above, he estimates between three and five veterans die everyday.