Rewarding real heroes

It seems incredible that more than 60 years after World War II there are people still fighting, only now over formal recognition of their efforts in helping defeat Imperial Japanese forces in the Pacific.
But it’s true, and they were some of the world’s toughest and most resourceful warriors — Philippine “irregulars,” men and women who bravely served in armed militias and unarmed scout programs alongside American military personnel during those hellish years of occupation.

Today, more than six decades later, there aren’t many of these valiant veterans left — an estimated 12,000 reside in the Philippines and only 6,000 live in this country. And today many of those who are still alive are in their 80s and 90s.

Yet, due to policies shaped by the attitudes of another time, none of these folks have been eligible for basic benefits afforded to all other veterans. And that’s just wrong.

As reporter Roopa Raman writes this week beginning on page 14, there is a long-overdue movement afoot in Congress to get these men and women their just desserts. Things are moving slowly, though, considering many of those eligible for such consideration in this country are not just elderly but currently living hand-to-mouth on a combination of meager monthly government benefits and charity.

As Raman reports, legislation in 1990 allowed Filipino veterans to become American citizens. In recent years, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of Pasadena and other lawmakers have been trying to amend the Rescission Act of 1946, which was written after the US ceded sovereignty over the Philippines and declared that the Filipino veterans were not eligible for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In the US Senate, Hawaii’s Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, himself a wounded and decorated World War II veteran, introduced the Filipino Veterans Equity Act, which was integrated into Senate Bill 1315 and is now called the Veteran’s Benefits Enhancement Act. The bill passed the full Senate last month.

In the House, San Diego Democratic Congressman Bob Filner, chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, has written corresponding legislation that has found its only opposition from Republicans.

“Sixty years of injustice burns in the hearts of these veterans,” Filner stated during a hearing in February. “Now in their 80s and 90s, their last wish is the restoration of the honor and dignity due them.”

Schiff calls this legislative effort a “common sense measure.”

“This bill will ensure that they receive the veterans’ benefits they have earned and deserve for their service,” Schiff told the Weekly.

Arturo Garcia, cofounder of Justice for Filipino American Veterans, a network of 62 organizations in Southern California that includes 17 student and 10 senior citizen groups, sees no reason for the legislation to stall.

“The veterans who served in World War II deserve their benefits,” Garcia told Raman. “They should not be taken for granted by the US government. By disenfranchising the Filipino veterans, America is not paying a debt of gratitude to the Filipino people.”

But will the government act in time?

“Now that [the veterans] have been getting older,” said James Maddox of the Vietnam Veterans of America’s Pasadena branch, “it is convenient for the US government to drag its feet so that they will die off and [the government] won’t have to do anything.”
Let’s hope Maddox is wrong.

To express your support for Filner’s legislation, call him at (619) 422-5963/ (760) 355-8800/ (202) 225-8045, or visit his Web site, www.house.gov/filner.

Call Schiff at (626) 304-2727 / (202) 225-4176, or visit his Web site at www.schiff.house.gov.
While you’re at it, write to President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov, or leave him a message at (202) 456-1111.

This Memorial Day, let’s remember — and finally reward — those who fought to make the world a better place, and in the end received nothing in return.