Tuesday, May 7, 2013

White House, US Army urged to recognize 24,000 Filipino World War II veterans

From the Business Mirror (May 7): White House, US Army urged to recognize 24,000 Filipino World War II veterans

THE Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Monday urged the White House and the US Army to heed the appeal of more than 24,000 ageing Filipino veterans who have been denied recognition of their service during World War II. 
 
Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia Jr. made the appeal on behalf of the 24,385 Filipino veterans in a statement on Monday, the 71st anniversary of the Fall of Corregidor—the island-fortress guarding Manila Bay where Filipino and American troops made a final stand against invading Japanese forces.
 
“More than anything else, let us not forget those Filipino soldiers who fought under the US flag, side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder with their American comrades and who, up to this day, continue to fight for the recognition and benefits due them for their service to America,” Cuisia said.
 
During the Second World War, the Philippines was a US commonwealth. The US government promised full veterans benefits to Filipinos who volunteered to fight. More than 250,000 joined.
 
Then, in 1946, President Harry Truman signed the Rescission Act, taking that promise away.
 
“The record of the Philippine soldiers for bravery and loyalty is second to none,” Truman wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate in 1946. “Their assignment was as bloody and difficult as any in which our American soldiers engaged. Under desperate circumstances they acquitted themselves nobly.”
 
Though Truman said the Rescission Act resulted in “discrimination,” he signed it.
According to Cuisia, those denied of recognition comprise 56 percent of the 43,083 surviving veterans who filed claims under the Filipino Veterans Compensation Fund approved by US President Barack Obama in 2009.
 
The fund, which was part of the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act, grants a one-time lump sum of $15,000 for veterans who have become US citizens and $9,000 for those who retained their Philippine citizenship.
 
“Today I call upon the US Army and the White House to honor our World War II veterans by according them due recognition by revisiting the certification process with the end in view of including other sources of records,” Cuisia said.
 
Retired Maj. Gen. Delfin Lorenzana, head of the Philippine Embassy’s Office of Veterans Affairs, said the recognition issue stemmed from the implementing guidelines issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2011 requiring veterans to present certification from the National Personnel Records Center that their names appear in both the Roster of Troops and the Discharge List prepared by the US Army at the end of the war.
 
“The claims of many of our veterans were disapproved because their names appear only in one list or the other but not both,” Lorenzana explained. “What the Embassy would like the US government to do is to allow the submission of other official documents and not decide the fate of our veterans based solely on the two lists.”
 
Lorenzana lamented that an interagency working group created by the White House last year to review the certification process still has not been able to resolve the issue. He said the US government has so far released a total of $223.7 million to 18,698 Filipino veterans from the $265-million compensation fund.
 

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