A major triumph for Filipino veterans

Thank you America for remembering Filipino World War II veterans, but our fight for final justice, truth, and honor continues.

By Jesus Terry F. Adevoso

Assistant Secretary for Veterans Affairs, Office of the President, Malacanang

The US Congress approved, and President Barack Obama signed into law, cash benefits for the few still-living Filipino veterans of World War II residing in both the USA and the Philippines. Approval and the benefits, ironically, did not come in the form of an equity law which had been urgently sought and campaigned for during the last two decades, but in the fast-tracked Economic Stimulus Law which grants payments to our veterans, not as veterans benefits but as “damages for human suffering.”

Nevertheless, this development represents a major triumph for the Arroyo administration and our veterans. It should be remembered that the equity campaign in the US Congress was being declared as dead by the Fil-Am community in 2002, when President Gloria made the crucial decision to revive it by strengthening and funding the Office of Veterans Affairs (OVA), the government’s official lobbyist to the US government, at the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC.

Taking on a new direction, the OVA decided to engage in an educational campaign among legislators to instill in them a deep understanding of the Filipino veterans’ plight, and to help in the development of localized Filipino-American lobby groups from California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, New York, Ohio-Kentucky and other areas. The idea was to have resident, voting Fil-Americans who could legally engaged in political discussions and contributions talk, influence and lobby directly with their legislators on the urgency of an equity law to overturn the US Rescission Act of 1946, and thus also add to the growing political strength of the Filipino community in American affairs.

On hindsight, this strategy contributed to the partial success veterans have now obtained from the US government. Finally granted in the Stimulus Law are the cash amounts of $15,000 to US-resident and US-citizen Filipino WWII veterans and $9,000 to non-US citizen and non-US resident veterans, in a total budgetary package totaling $198 million. These benefits come in the form of a one-time final payment with the veterans required to waive, in quit-claim fashion, any further cash benefits forever.

Much has been said and commented by living veterans themselves about this total package. They wisely point out that any legislated act now can never be fully responsive to their needs, or undo the tragedy that the Rescission Act was in their lives. They declare that the new law does not and can never fully compensate them for the 63 years during which they were deprived by the Rescission Act of official US recognition as US veterans and almost all benefits which normally would have been granted them under US veterans benefits laws from 1945 to today.

But this is not the time to dwell on these comments and further fan any flames. Let it be said instead that veterans, who remain true friends of America, have come to thank the US for enacting this law, and have resigned themselves to accept whatever the US government finally legislates for them, and leave it to the USA and its citizens to face the judgment of history on this issue. Sen. Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), author of the veterans’ damage provisions, himself correctly said that passage was imperative to also restore the honor of the United States in the international community.

On a positive note, the wisdom and foresight of US Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka (Hawaii) and Congressman Bob Filner (California), the principal authors of the veterans benefits, caused some very significant wording to be incorporated in the law, to wit:

“Payment of prior eligibility status. — Nothing in this section shall prohibit a person from receiving any benefit (including health care, survivor, or burial benefits) which the person would have been eligible to receive based on laws in effect as of the day before the date of the enactment of this Act.”

These words clearly show that these friendly, wise and realistic American legislators have left open a window for Filipino veterans to campaign and obtain US veterans medical and other non-cash benefits in the near future. The Philippine government and veterans’ descendants who have taken up the cudgels for their parents take this as a very positive development and a highlight of the law. It means official government and private lobby work can continue to work together hand-in-hand to gain more benefits.

The more urgent task now is to lessen that burden of our aging and sickly war veterans as much as, and in all ways, possible. Our true heroes, who fought the war against Japan under the most difficult of circumstances, do not have much time left.

The US and Philippine governments and Filipino veterans’ and descendants’ organizations should now work closely together, to obtain speedy and controversy-free damage payments granted by the USA:

a) the Philippine government should quickly declare, via executive action or legislation, these US damage payments as exempt from income tax, just at the US government has done;

b) the Fil-Am community in the US should press on the DVA to issue application/claim form immediately, considering that only a one-year period was given for such claims to be filed;

c) the US and Philippine governments, with the assistance of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines and other legitimate veterans’ organizations, should form joint teams to verify, ascertain the status, and visit aging eligible WWII veterans all over the country who may not be physically capable of filing applications and following up on these at the lone USVA office in Manila;

d) the US and Philippine governments should take steps and all necessary safeguards to prevent unscrupulous elements in both countries from seeking to illegally victimize the veterans of their legitimate payments;

e) Now that the US government has finally recognized our WWII veterans for their true gallantry and heroism, the Philippine government should take steps to forever preserve and protect the legacies and collective assets of Filipino WWII veterans from being dissipated our usurped by present or future generations.

Only then will we all be truly doing honor to our genuine Filipino heroes — who gave their all to this country without counting the cost or asking for rewards, and always holding their heads up high.

God bless our World War II veterans.