SikhSpectrum.com Monthly
Issue No.15, February 2004
Filipino WWII vets lobby for full benefits
Danny Chan
Filemon Mordeno fought Japanese attacks beside US soldiers in the Philippine jungles during World War II; but he has yet to receive the same benefits his American counterparts received.
Mr Mordeno, with several thousand Filipino-American soldiers who fought under Gen. Douglas MacArthur in World War II, has lobbied unsuccessfully for official recognition of their military service and full veterans benefits.
Standing with help from a cane outside San Francisco’s War Memorial building recently, the 82-year-old Mr Mordeno shouted, “Equity now!” with about 40 elderly Filipino-American veterans and their wives, spouses and children.
The Philippines was an American commonwealth when the war began. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called about 200,000 Filipinos into service. Alongside American forces, they battled Japanese fighters on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
But under a 1946 congressional act, Filipino veterans were denied benefits conferred to American veterans.
On Dec. 8, one day after the 62nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor, veterans staged rallies in several cities including San Francisco and Los Angeles demanding that Congress repeal the 1946 act.
Edwin Jocson’s father served in World War II. The Filipino-American veteran died last year at age 82, still hoping to receive equal benefits and treatment as American servicemen, Mr Jocson said.
“Just imagine—they fought the same war, they experienced the same sufferings, but they aren’t recognized as the same,” he said.
On Dec. 6, President George Bush signed a law entitling 8,000 Filipino-American veterans in the United States to Veterans Affairs health care, the same care American veterans receive.
Franco Arcebal, a World War II veteran who was tortured and sentenced to death by decapitation before escaping a Japanese prison camp, is pleased with the development.
“We felt rejected and this will give back to us the prestige,” Mr Arcebal, 79, said. “They’re now recognizing our services by way of granting us health care.”
Filipino veterans have acquired benefits in a piecemeal fashion. From 1990 to 1995, about 17,000 veterans were accorded US citizenship. A law passed in 2000 allowed Filipino veterans to be buried in national cemeteries.
Eric Lachica, the executive director of the Washington, DC-based American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, said his organization plans to lobby for Filipino-American veterans to receive the same disability pension as American soldiers. Disabled Filipino-American veterans currently receive about $200 to $300 less than American veterans.
Mr Lachica’s group is also supporting a bill by Sen. Daniel Inouye that would allow Philippine-based veterans to receive VA health care from a facility there.
Cesar Patulot, the chairman of FilAmVets Foundation, called the approach incremental and said aging veterans—many in their 80s—require immediate assistance. Mr Patulot, who helped organize the rallies, wants a repeal of the 1946 act.
