US payback, or pork for Filipino vets?
By Joel D Adriano
MANILA - Over six decades after the end of World War II, the United States is
belatedly acknowledging the contribution of its former Filipino allies in
repelling invading Japanese forces from the Philippines.
United States President Barack Obama last month allocated US$198 million in
compensation for Filipino war veterans as a small part of his government's $787
billion economic stimulus package. The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act includes a rider to pay Filipino war veterans a one-time lump sum payment
of $15,000 if they are currently US citizens and $9,000 if they are
non-citizens.
Filipino veterans, by definition in the bill, include not just those
who served in the military forces, but also members of organized guerilla
forces and those who served in the Philippine Scouts, some of which came under
direct control of the US armed forces during World War II.
The law marks what many Filipinos see as a long overdue legislative reversal.
In March 1942, the US Congress passed a resolution recognizing the bravery of
Filipino soldiers for their military service and extended an offer of
citizenship and benefits on a par with US war veterans. When the war ended,
however, Congress passed another bill in February 1946 rescinding its original
offers and ruled that the service of Filipinos was not considered active duty.
That historical pique, along with a move by nationalistic Filipino lawmakers to
oust the US's military presence from their Philippine-situated Subic and Clark
bases in 1991, has over the years complicated strategic ties. The current
US-Philippine strategic alliance has its roots in the US's "war on terror",
aimed at countering the supposed rising threat from Islamic militants in
Southeast Asia.
However, a more subdued reason for the recently reinvigorated alliance is what
many in the Philippines refer to as the "China challenge". That includes
official Philippine concerns about Beijing's military modernization and
build-up, including fast improving naval capabilities which threaten Manila's
position in a potential conflict over the disputed and supposedly oil-rich
Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The new legislation means different things to different people. Hawaiian
Democrat Senator Daniel Inouye said the bill's passage marked the end of a
"black chapter in US history". He had goaded US lawmakers during their
deliberations that time was running out for these allied Filipino veterans,
with hundreds of them literally lying in their hospital death beds.
The previous incarnation of the legislation, known as the Filipino Veterans
Equity Bill, was rejected last year after it failed to garner support from
Republican lawmakers. Senator John McCain, Obama's opponent in last autumn's
presidential campaign, challenged the usefulness of veterans' payment for
Filipinos during a heated debate in January on the grounds that the payments
would not help the US economy or create jobs.
Some see the payment as pork for Hawaii, which has a large population of
Filipinos and is the state where Obama spent much of his childhood. Currently,
over 3 million ethnic Filipinos live in the US and many of them lean towards
Democratic candidates, whom they view as more receptive to minorities. Luis
Arriola, a former government official, saw the bill's passage as a sort of
payback for Filipino-American support for the Democrats at the past elections.
According to the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), the average age of
surviving World War II veterans is 85 years old, and 1,257 of them have died in
the first two months of this year. The PVAO tends to some 230,000 pensioners,
including 60,000 World War II veterans. The US Veterans Affairs Office lists
only 18,000 surviving Filipino World War II veterans, including 6,000 who now
live in the US.
Since February 19, over 2,000 veterans, along with their families, have already
trooped to the PVAO office in Camp Aguinaldo to file for their application for
the US benefits.
The benefits may also be claimed by surviving spouses, but will not be
distributed any further down the generational tree.
However, that limiting provision has already come under fire from known US
critics, including local militant groups such as Bayan Muna and Anakpawis, and
even some congressional supporters of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Reacting to the long-delayed and unequal payment, political economist Solita
Monsod claimed the treatment of Filipino World War II veterans is "the latest
indignity in the mountain of indignities heaped on our soldiers".
Meanwhile, administration Senator Joker Arroyo (no relation to the president)
described the benefits as "puny" and "too little, too late". He is one of the
strongest critics of the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), and has
tried - so far unsuccessfully - to build a congressional movement to scrap the
10-year-old agreement.
The VFA, passed in 1999, allows US troops to temporarily train Filipino
soldiers in counter-terrorism techniques. There is no exact figure given by
either government for the number of US troops in-country at any given time,
though most are known to be stationed in Zamboanga on the southern island of
Mindanao. Some 6,000 US troops will participate in the joint Balikatan
exercises scheduled to be held this April in the Bicol region.
That renewed presence has been controversial. Multi-sectoral group Bayan's
secretary general Renato Reyes has called the VFA "licenses for US military
interventions" in the Philippines. The group's website includes free downloads
of anti-VFA songs. Roger Rosal, spokesperson for a communist rebel group,
claims Americans have been directly involved in recent Philippine military
operations, including assistance with satellite mapping of enemy locations.
That assistance proved crucial during the hunt and eventual killing of the
terror-linked Abu Sayyaf group's top leaders.
Rebecca Thompson, spokesperson for the US Embassy in Manila, declined to
comment on any connection between the US's apparent growing military presence
and the belated benefits offered to the Filipino veterans. She reiterated that
the intention of the new law was simply to honor the contribution of the
Filipino World War II veterans.
Whether the bill is a feather in President Arroyo's cap is debatable. Her
offices have bid to capitalize on the bill's passage, and warned those haggling
over the amounts that it was better to receive something rather than nothing.
Arroyo's critics, on the other hand, have noted her failure so far to get an
audience with Obama.
But for many Filipino veterans, now in the twilight of their lives, Obama's
belated recognition of their past contributions finally puts them among the
ranks of what some Americans have referred to as the country's greatest
generation.
Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance
journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times
and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People's Tonight.
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