US lawmakers back law benefiting Pinoy war vets

A congressional group representing Americans of Asian and Pacific heritage backed legislation to reverse a six-decade-old law and award veterans’ benefits to Filipinos who fought with US forces in World War II.

Rep. Mike Honda said Wednesday that the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, which he heads, considers giving full equity of benefits for an estimated 20,000 surviving veterans a top legislative goal of the caucus.

Both Honda and Rep. Bob Filner, the bill’s sponsor, are Democrats from California, where many Filipino immigrants live.

Originally, 250,000 Filipinos were recruited, mostly in 1941 as the US built forces to counter any Japanese attacks on US interests. The Philippines was a US commonwealth then, and a US naval station on Cavite peninsula across Manila Bay from the capital was attacked hours after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

The recruits were promised they would be treated as US veterans regarding benefits. The Pacific war ended in August 1945.

Honda, a Japanese-American, said Wednesday that he considers the 1946 decision "one of the greatest injustices ever perpetrated by the Congress."

The proposed law would remove the rescission from the 1946 statute and restore the promised equity, Honda said. It would not be retroactive, and families of the veterans who have died would receive no benefits.

Ben de Guzman, with the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity, said the law would affect about 13,000 Filipino veterans still alive in their homeland and about 7,000 surviving veterans in the US.

Filner, House veterans affairs chairman, said the Senate and the House would begin deliberating on the full equity measure next month, adding there was no doubt in his mind that House Resolution 760, also known as the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2007, and its companion bill in the Senate, S57, would be enacted into law.

But Eric Lachica, executive director of the Washington-based American Coalition for Filipino Veterans (ACFV), cautioned passage of the veterans bill was not all that certain particularly in the Senate where Democrats hold a slim one-seat majority.

"We are cautiously optimistic about the prospects of the equity pension bill passing this fall, but we have major hurdles to overcome," Lachica said, pointing out that not all Senate Democrats have publicly declared yet if they will vote for it.

Lachica suggested President Arroyo write or call US President George W. Bush and personally ask him to support the pending legislation. – AP and Jose Katigbak, STAR Washington Bureau