PERRYSCOPE

Perry Diaz
Requiem for the Equity Bill

Sixty-three years after the Rescission Act of 1946 was passed into law, the surviving Filipino veterans of World War II finally, albeit belatedly, got their “recognition” for their military service under the US flag. And with that “recognition,” they received a one-time lump sum amount.

If there was one word to describe what they did, it was “patriotism.” Ironically, unlike their counterparts in the regular American armed forces, the Filipino veterans who fought under the command of the legendary “American Caesar” -- Gen. Douglas MacArthur -- were singled out and denied the benefits entitled to American military veterans.

MacArthur once said during the Korean War, where several battalions of Philippine soldiers fought under his United Nations command, “Give me 100 Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world.” Hyperbolic as it seemed, it was a testament to the Filipino fighting men whose loyalty to the United States was beyond question and whose bravery in war was par to none.

But what remained a big question in the past 63 years was the United States government’s inequity to the 250,000 Filipino soldiers who were conscripted into the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) by the late president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Their primary mission was to hold the invading Japanese at bay while America recovered from the crippling blow suffered by its navy from the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Last Feb. 17, the 18,000 aging survivors -- mostly in their 90’s now -- received news that President Barack Obama had signed the $787 Stimulus Package which included a provision for $198 million for one-time compensation to the surviving Filipino veterans. Seemingly, the veterans were happy. Why not? After all, the last battle they fought in Congress -- which they almost won -- last year for full equity was sidelined by politicians of both parties in the waning days of the 110th Congress.

After failing to reach a compromise and the apparent lack of determination on the part of the House leadership, all hopes were lost in the wake of the financial meltdown that ripped the US economy last October 2008. When the 110th Congress adjourned, the Equity Bill died as it had died in every Congress since it was first introduced in the 103th Congress by Sen. Daniel Inouye as the “Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 1993.”

In 2008, S.1315 -- known as the “Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007” -- passed the Veterans subcommittees in both chambers for the first time since 1993. And also for the first time, it passed the full Senate! As the House of Representatives debated the bill, which would have provided the surviving Filipino veterans monthly pensions for the rest of their lives, a group of Filipino-Americans from San Francisco drove a polarizing -- and debilitating -- wedge which stopped the passage of the Equity Bill.

On the eve of the House floor vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi received a letter from a certain Regalado Baldonado asking her not to support S.1315. Mr. Baldonado’s letter was not authorized by the Veterans Federation of the Philippines (VFP) and US-based Filipino veterans organizations who were part of the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity, the primary advocate and lobbying group for the Equity Bill. In the aftermath of the furor that erupted, Mr. Baldonado claimed that he merely signed the letter prepared by two San Francisco-based organizations, the Veterans Equity Center (VEC) and Students Action for Veterans Equity (SAVE).

He signed the letter as “San Francisco Veterans Affairs Commissioner,” a position that had nothing to do with S.1315. In an attempt to justify the Baldonado “hit piece,” the VEC Chairperson remarked that the National Network for Veterans Equity (NNVE) and VEC “are leading the community in calling and urging the office of Pelosi to stand uncompromisingly behind the Filipino veterans’ clamor for full equity.”

However, from my first-hand knowledge as a member of the Steering Committee of NAFVE, the representatives of bona fide Filipino WW II veterans’ groups were willing to settle for lesser pension amounts as embodied in S.1315.

In my column, “Betrayal of the Filipino Veterans” (June 13, 2008), I said: “The Filipino veterans must have felt the pang of betrayal once again, this time not only from the representatives of the American people in Congress but from their own people. The Filipino-Americans who claim to be ‘advocates’ for full equity for the Filipino veterans have once again played the only game they have been playing for the past eight years, ‘All or Nothing.’ They would rather see the Filipino veterans get nothing unless it was ‘full equity’.”

After S.1315 failed, the authors of the Equity Bill introduced a new bill in the House that would provide a one-time lump sum payment to the Filipino veterans. But it was too late, the 110th Congress ended without acting on the new bill.

Realizing that the Equity Bill would not have a chance of passage in the new 111th Congress, the bill’s authors opted to pursue the lump sum payment and include it in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, known as the Stimulus Package. When the news of their action spread in the Filipino-American community, it was received with bittersweet reaction.

Those who had been in the forefront in the battle -- NAFVE and the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans (ACFV) -- for the Equity Bill’s passage during the previous 110th Congress welcomed the insertion of the lump sum payment provision in the Stimulus Package. Interestingly, the advocates of “All Or Nothing” had quietly resigned to the fact that “All” was lost and they achieved “Nothing.”

The lost battle for the “Equity Bill” should serve as a lesson to leaders of the Filipino-American community that political empowerment can only be achieved when they get their act together. The battle was ours to win but disunity within our ranks sent the wrong message to Congress that our community leaders were only interested in pursuing their personal agenda and not the best interests of the Filipino veterans. In the end, Congress unilaterally acted to decide how to compensate the Filipino veterans for their wartime services; that is, one-time payments of $15,000 for Filipino veterans with US citizenship and $9,000 for non-US citizens.

But all is not lost. Losing the battle for the “Equity Bill” has given us the wisdom to look back and recognize our failings and to strive to work together in future endeavors. The question is: Is the community ready to work together? I fervently hope that our community would mature and become a potent political force in this land called home by more than four million Americans of Filipino descent. (PerryDiaz@gmail. com)