Pinoy vets slam benefits package

Filipino World War II veterans both in the United States and in the Philippines are "not completely happy" with the package of benefits the US government offered to President Arroyo during her recent state visit, an official of the Philippine Embassy in Washington reported yesterday.

Jesus Terry Adevoso, special presidential representative and head of the Office of Veterans Affairs, said the US government and Congress are gearing to approve a law granting medical care benefits worth $15 million annually for five years, but only to Filipino World War II veterans residing in the USA.

Adevoso said that by latest US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, only about 29,400 Filipino WW2 veterans are still alive, with about 8,000 of them residing in the USA. Thus, the majority of Filipino WWII veterans residing in the Philippines "will not be benefited by the proposed US legislation."

He said that while US legislators claim to be seeking the removal of the discriminatory Rescission Act of 1946, which unjustly denied benefits to all Filipino WWII veterans, they are about to pass another discriminatory law that favors a minority of Filipino WWII veterans to the detriment of the majority, thus indirectly promoting internal dissension among Filipino and Filipino-American WWII veterans and their organizations.

Adevoso, the son of WW2 hero Col. Terry Magtanggol Adevoso of the Hunters ROTC Guerrillas, said that when he spoke before the Filipino-Americans in Los Angeles last May 24, veterans there were also not happy with the proposed new benefits law, saying they, like must Filipino WWII veterans living in the USA, were already getting medical care from the state of California, even new national veterans legislation.

Adevoso said that the OVA had been pushing for the passage of law in Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye’s Senate Bill no. 68 and California Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald’s House Bill No. 1984, seeking to grant $60 million annually in medical care and $100 per month pensions to all Filipino veterans residing in both the USA and the Philippines.

"These Inouye-McDonald bills," Adevoso concluded, "are the true beginning of equity, and we will continue to press the US government in this direction."