A tribute to war heroes

published 9 March 2009, MST

The clock is ticking, and twice as fast.

There is a framed document perched on a chair in the office of Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, one of five bureaus under the Department of National Defense. The frame is not hung yet; it is fairly new. According to Carolina, it was given to the agency by US Ambassador Kristie Kenney just last month during ceremonies held in Malacañang. It is the text of a portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as President Barack Obama’s first pet piece of legislation, the economic stimulus plan.

The law says $198 million will be allotted to Filipino soldiers who fought alongside American soldiers in World War II. Veterans who have since become US citizens are entitled to $15,000; non-citizens will receive $9,000. More importantly, recognition of these veterans’ contributions is spelled out in the law— such has eluded the soldiers for six long decades.

War veterans with their families, caregivers, relatives and even neighbors swamped the PVAO compound in Camp Aguinaldo upon first hearing of this development. While the receiving of the claims as well as the processing is really the job of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (through the embassy on Roxas Boulevard ), the impulse of these veterans was to troop to the familiar PVAO, which would then tell them what to do and where to go.

Both the embassy and PVAO had anticipated this scenario and thus were able to prepare for it. The USVA set up shop in PVAO to receive thousands of claims. The Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Philippine National Red Cross set up medical assistance units —blood pressure-monitoring centers, first aid facilities, an ambulance on stand by. See, this was a niche market: the average age for World War II veterans is 85, according to Carolina.

And since there was a fixed number of claims that could be received in a day, transient quarters in the camp were made available to those who traveled from their hometowns, usually provinces around Metro Manila.

Fast-track centers were also set up in key points in the country. Local government officials provided information assistance, telling the aging heroes and their families about procedures and warning them against fixers who were ever so ready to jump at these veterans’ desperation and ignorance to make a quick buck for themselves.

In less than a month, more than 20,000 claims were filed.

That’s already more than the estimated number of World War II veterans in the Philippines, which numbers anywhere between 15 and 16 thousand, according to Carolina. The figures vary. There are supposedly 18,000 names in the so-called Missouri List, also known as the Revised Reconstructed Guerrilla Roster completed in 1948 in the US Army Administrative Center in, where else, Missouri. But Carolina says there are also names listed under United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and Philippine Scouts, so the total number contemplated could just as easily swell to 20,000.

Carolina says it is possible that some soldiers may not be on the list even though they may have seen action during the war. This is because the US Army stopped making the lists in 1948. So is there a way to find out, to spare the veterans from the effort of personally filing their claims only to find out that they are NOT on the list? Unfortunately, there is none. The only way to find out is to actually file a claim.

The PVAO and the embassy cannot do anything about the fact that only the veterans, not their children and surviving spouses, can claim the benefit (if, however, a veteran dies after the claim has been filed, the family may receive the money if approved). Nor can they change the fact that the compensation comes in the form of a lump-sum payment instead of a monthly pension, as some veterans apparently prefer. It is, after all, the law of the United States.

Still, these two agencies are aware of the formidable physical toll that a simple claim-filing trip exerts on the veterans. Hence there is the option of mailing the filled-out form (available at the US Embassy, the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and the 13 PVAO offices nationwide) and support documents. Of course, only a few might be willing to rely on the mailing system for a matter of such importance. But when one’s father or grandfather’s condition is fragile, and the offices are just so far away, does one really have a choice?

Internet-literate relatives of veterans can go to www.manila.usembassy.gov for further details. Claims may be filed until Feb. 16, 2010, one year after Obama signed the law.

But filing at once has never been a problem for the veterans eager to claim what has been long due them. These war heroes are dying at the rate of 10 a day, Carolina says, and he is not exaggerating. (It is because of this that he believes the lump-sum payments are better than a monthly pension. The veterans would have more use for the money in the immediate term.)

Apparently, the USVA is aware of this, even as it has not yet come out with an announcement as to how long the actual processing would take. Carolina says the money will be coursed through the veterans’ existing pension accounts with several PVAO-partner banks. This will eliminate the risks related to the issuing of checks (with which PVAO is all too familiar, having only recently eliminated sending checks for monthly pensions via mail) or the hassle of opening yet another bank account.

***

It’s obvious that this provision in the stimulus bill does not have any substantial effects in terms of whipping the American economy, mired in recession, into shape. Also, in the long years that the stand-alone Filipino Veterans Equity Bill tried to make its way through the US Congress (it hurdled the Senate but not quite the House), its advocates had to deal with the pervading sentiment that dollars given to Filipino soldiers are dollars taken away from American ones. Wars, past and present, have always been a sensitive subject for the lawmakers’ constituents.

Carolina says that sheer willpower on the part of the bill’s sponsors, especially Democrat Senator Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) made the insertion of the provision in the must-pass stimulus bill possible. And because the provision was not stricken out when the bill became a law, it effectively erased a decades-old blot on the US that stemmed from its denial of the recognition so richly deserved by Filipino soldiers.

Better than nothing? Could be. It’s a milestone, nonetheless. The soldiers previously said no to quit-claim offers meant to placate them with lump-sum payments without official recognition. They were correct to have waited— although waiting itself was a risk, given their advanced age.

Today, the fact that the compensation is given during a most trying time, economically, in American history makes paying tribute to these war heroes just a little more meaningful. It is, after all, easier to hand out cash when you are awash with it. That you give even as you need money so badly says something about how valued the cause, or recipient, is.