For Immediate Release
July 4, 2011
New York, NY—29 year-old youth leader Chevy Evangelista, spokesperson of the NY-based Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (Linking Children to the Motherland) will lead a delegation of 20 WW II veterans, widows, lawyers, and migrant workers from California, Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia on July 12-13 in the US Congress in Washington DC to demand full equity after 65 years of denial.
“Our Filipino WW II vets and widows are in their twilight years and have never been fully recognized as American veterans and survivors, it’s time that the young take full responsibility. Equity involves not just compensation but honor and dignity of veterans and people of color in the US,” explained Evangelista during a national phone conference last July 2, 2011.
“They were younger my age now when they defended this nation and were discriminated since then. This sets a bad precedence of how the US government treats young people of color.”
Support for HR 210 Growing
Rep. Jackie Speier, CA-12th district introduced last January 2011 HR 210, “The Filipino Veterans Fairness Act of 2011,” that will provide equal benefits to Filipino WW II veterans and their families equal to their American counterparts. To date, 31 representatives have co-sponsored. Delegates will sit-down separately in two days with 50 representatives that previously co-sponsored similar Filipino equity bill in 2007.
The Rescission Act of 1946 stripped Filipino WW II veterans of their recognition and benefits as full American veterans. Of the 66 allied nationalities who fought for the US, the Filipinos were singled out not to be recognized. In 2008, under the Enhanced GI Bill, the Filipinos for the second time in history were selectively discriminated not to be fully recognized and thus not eligible for monthly pensions accorded to all American veterans.
“We have only few years to live, but we want live those remaining years with full honor as American veterans or as survivors of American veterans,” said Regalado Baldonado, commissioner of San Francisco Commission on Veterans Affairs, who will come with the delegation.
“We are not simply widows. We are widows of American veterans who fought for the prize of freedom that US Representatives dearly enjoy now,” said Flor Delos Santos while holding a purple medal of her deceased husband.
Lump Sum of 2008
In 2008, the US Congress approved the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund (FVEC) included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) signed by Obama. The Filipino veterans were awarded one time $9,000/$15,000 lump sum. To date, some 27,000 were denied out of 41,000 total applicants, as most of them were not in the official US Army Personnel List otherwise known as “Missouri List.”
“The FVEC was inherently fraudulent, discriminatory, and dubious,” said Arnedo Valera, legal counsel and Executive- Director of Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC).
The FVEC denied most of the widows, provided unequal compensation between Filipinos and Americans, and inserted a “quit claim” provision or waiver of future benefits like lifetime monthly pensions.
Recently, Valera in behalf of the veterans and widows filed a petition to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California after lawsuit was dismissed in a lower court.
Meanwhile, the NY-based DAMAYAN Migrants Workers Association will be sending five delegates to join the lobby in Congress. “The fact that the issue involves racial inequality makes the veterans an issue of immigrant workers as well,” said Linda Oalican, community organizer of DAMAYAN.
