Poster child of Pinoy vets in US dies in cusp of breakthrough

WASHINGTON – A poster child of Filipino World War II veterans in the United States has died.

Joaquin Tejada, 85, who was well-known to Capitol Hill and White House police for his protest marches to bring attention to the plight of Filipino war veterans, died of an apparent heart failure in his sleep in a modest one-bedroom apartment in the US capital.

Tejada and a small band of old and ailing comrades plodded the halls of the US Congress for years lobbying for GI benefits for Filipino veterans. They became the face of the steadily dwindling group of poor and sickly veterans in the Philippines and the United States.

A memorial service will be held at the Philippine Embassy tomorrow for Tejada who died on the cusp of a breakthrough in Congress to reverse a controversial law of 1946 which stripped Filipino veterans of GI benefits they fervently believe is their rightful reward for fighting the Japanese in WWII.

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Willy Gaa, in a statement on the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, said, “It is but fitting that as we remember the event that lit the flames of war in the Pacific, we also recall those who fought for freedom and democracy and renew our resolve to continue our campaign for justice and equity for our WWII veterans.”

After the end of the Pacific war, the US Congress passed the Rescission Act of 1946 (PL 79-301) that withheld GI rights for Filipino soldiers who fought under the US flag but were not injured in the fighting.

More than 250,000 Filipino veterans were disenfranchised by this law. Today less than 18,000 remain and their numbers are fast diminishing.

Two-thirds of the survivors live in the Philippines and the remainder are residents in the United States.

In his statement, Gaa said it was for Tejada and his comrades “both the living and the dead, that we must sustain our resolve to have the Filipino WWII Veterans Equity Act passed.”

The US Senate voted in April to give veterans living in the Philippines at least $300 a month in pensions but the House turned this down last month and instead offered each of them a one-time lump sum payment of $9,000.

Unless the Senate and House reconcile their differences before the 110th Congress ends this month – and barring a miracle this looks unlikely – the veterans and their supporters will have to start from scratch again in their lobbying for benefits when the new 111th Congress convenes in January.

Tejada died quietly in his sleep on the morning of Dec. 1 and is survived by his widow Epitacia Tejada, 77, daughters Patricia Tejada, a dentist in Saudi Arabia, and Violeta Alejandro, a homemaker in Cubao, Quezon City, and son Joaquin “Boy” Jr. of North Brunswick New Jersey and seven grandchildren.