On Veteran’s Day, America honored the women and men who
served their country by promising allegiance to the United States,
and proved it in armed combat. But while our veterans have
proven their loyalty to our government, our government has not
proven its loyalty to them ““ particularly the Pilipino
soldiers who fought during World War II.
Imagine enlisting in the American armed forces during World War
II, promised money, services, health care, and burial rights for
serving your country. You are then sent to war, enduring enemy
gunfire, hunger, fatigue, torture, and the unforgettable memories
of seeing your comrades die.
When the war is won, you turn to the U.S. government for the
promised benefits, but it betrays you. The government does not
give you what it promised, and worse, does not even recognize your
military service. And now, more than 60 years later, the U.S.
government still does not give you your fair share.
This is the situation of the Pilipino American World War II
Veteran. Sixty years ago when the Philippines was still a
commonwealth under the United States, 140,000 Pilipinos responded
to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s call for Pilipinos to
fight the Japanese army and to serve under the command of American
officers on July 26, 1941.Â
Roosevelt promised these Pilipinos benefits equal to their
American counterparts. However, after fighting behind enemy
lines for five years during the Japanese occupation, the Pilipinos
were betrayed on Feb. 18, 1946, when Congress passed the Rescission
Act which withdrew the Pilipinos’ status as American
veterans, thus denying them any benefits.Â
In 2001, a bill was introduced to Congress, H.R. 491, better
known as the Equity Bill. If passed, this bill will restore
American veteran status to those Pilipinos so they could receive
their benefits. However, due to the war on terrorism, Congress
pushed the bill back, and they have yet to pass it into
law.Â
In the meantime, our Pilipino American veterans continue to
suffer and die without gaining the recognition they deserve. Today,
there are only 12,000 surviving Pilipino American veterans in the
United States, a majority of them living in poverty. These
veterans only have Social Security to support them, most of the
money going back to their families in the Philippines.Â
Many of them live in Historic Pilipino town in the Rampart
District of Los Angeles. They live in one-bedroom apartments with
as many as five or more veterans sharing a room. These veterans
suffer medical ailments and diseases such as tuberculosis more
readily than their American counterparts because VA hospitals will
not accept them due to their non-veteran status. They are old,
and do not have the energy to sustain their fight for equal
benefits without the help of students such as yourself.
Whether you consider yourself Pilipino or not, this issue
concerns us all because we are all American. The actions of
the U.S. government are sponsored by our tax dollars, so its
actions, or inactions, should concern us all.
At this time, when Social Security, health care benefits,
education, and other social services are being diverted so we can
better bomb and kill people on foreign soil, we must ask the
question: how much value does our government put on human life?
What does it say about our government if is unwilling to give
health care to 12,000 aging veterans ““ veterans who were
willing to fight and die for it ““ but is spending billions of
dollars to bomb the populated deserts of Afghanistan and
Iraq? If it doesn’t care enough to give 12,000 veterans
their benefits, how much does it care about us?
If our government can get away with breaking its promises, what
good then, are the promises made to us in the Constitution? We
cannot let these insincerities go unchecked. Otherwise, all of our
benefits are at risk.
Today, the passage of the Equity Bill for Pilipino American
veterans is no longer about the benefits, since for many the
benefits come too little, too late.
This passage is about recognition. These people are proud to
have served the United States. Now, they want the United States to
recognize their service.