Bernie Becker, New York Times, Feb. 16, 2009
Filipino veterans of World War II, on a six-decade quest for benefits from the federal government, have found them in an unlikely place: the stimulus package that was passed on Friday.
Congressional supporters and the remaining veterans—about 18,000 out of some 250,000—lauded a $198 million provision that will give lump-sum payments of $15,000 to Filipino veterans who are American citizens and $9,000 to those who are noncitizens.
{snip}
Filipino veterans, who had been placed under American command during World War II, had expected to receive the same pensions and benefits as American soldiers once the war ended. Instead, the government granted benefits only to a small number of them.
Supporters of the provision, originally inserted by Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, said that they did not expect the payments to do much to stimulate the economy, but that it was a way to bypass opponents who had blocked payments in the past.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on February 17, 2009)
Comments
If these vets were promised something, it is long overdue! However, it should not be in a stimulus package.
I have no problem with this. They fought for America back when there was one… What I do worry about is all the artifacts and relics and talismans of American History. What happens to them when there is no more America? And what will the history books say about it after it happens?
They fought for the United States. They deserve compensation.
There’s a big problem with Filipino Vets and health care fraud.
Many of them feign illnesses with crooked doctors who pad the bill then file bogus claims against the Military Tricare Health Plan. The Doctor gives a kick back to the Veteran patient and they both scam the system.
The scam had gotten so out of control that Tricare had lowered medical payouts for those living in the Philippines, to less then what Veteran living in the States would receive.
The real mistake was America acquiring the Phillipinnes in the first place. Had this not happened this would not have happened. I can even make a case that the war with Japan might not have happened had America not over-reached so far into the Pacific. The Spanish-American war was wrong, needless and a mistake.
“I have no problem with this.” -anonymous
I don’t mind seeing these men who fought for the (former) US being compensated. I don’t think the money should be included with the idiotic (non) Stimulus Package. It should be taken from the dollars being Hoovered from taxpayers and handed over to illegals from South of our former border and everywhere else.
my only objection is that its hidden in a stimulus bill. they should put it in a separate bill so the contributions of our filipino friends can be recognized. ive got big respect for the filipinos who fought alongside americans in ww2.
They fought the Japanese yes, but it was America that fought for them.
Our troops died to liberate the Philippines. They helped us free their country. The blood our soldiers shed was enough payment.
Do we also owe the Chinese compensation, Australians, New Zealanders, how about the French Resistance fighters?
Don’t fall for this type of propaganda.
The compensation should come from their own country’s coffers.
The US does not owe the world a payoff just because they do what is right and in their own best interest.
My Father was in the US Navy in 1944. He made up part of the massive US Invasion Force that
Italo
They fought for the United States. They deserve compensation.
I agree with this. Quite a lot of Philippine people are in the U.S. Navy and Marines, and I have worked with them in the field in Iraq. I came to appreciate the people and would like to visit there. They are one of the few countries in which we (white Americans) are still welcomed with no restrictions, yet they have trouble coming to the U.S. and are treated as hostile aliens!!! it’s the muslims, Pakis, Hindis and central American riff raff that should be stopped from coming into the U.S.
Our treatment of our Philipino brothers in arms has been almost as bad as how we treated the Indians and far worse than how we treated blacks. The best thing that ever happened to African Americans was when one of their relatives sold them to the white man.
>>>They fought for the United States. They deserve compensation
You wouldn’t care to read a history book, would you? The Philippines were an American protectorate, to be sure. But the Japanese, kindly, loving, peacful people that they were… enslaved the native Filipinos. Raping, looting, butchering at will! Oops, sorry. I don’t think Japan likes to be reminded of its own historic flaws.
Filipinos did not necessarily fight for America as much as for their own freedom from tyranical Japanese overlords. Given a lot of American blood was spilled for the purpose of wresting the Philippine Islands from their Japanese conquerors… that claim is at best, a half-truth!
I am not knocking the Filipinos. Simply pointing out they hardly deserve that hand-out given millions of Americans got no special funds for being WWII veterans other than some educational benefits. I am sorry, but I am getting damned tired of half-truths and lies posted on this site.
Reply to Charles B. Tiffany:
You are missing the big picture. The United States should never have been there IN THE FIRST PLACE. Had America not fought Spain in a bullying senseless war, none of the things you say would have happened to America or been its problem.
The US liberated Philippines at tremendous human cost to our nation. Yes it was in our self-interest, but it was in their even more so. Compensating another nation’s soldiers, or in this case its guerillas, seems madness. It was the US that assisted to liberate them. Further we allowed many to become full citizens after the war. The benefits are endless and the appreciation little.
The compensation should come from their own country’s coffers.
The Philippine Islands didn’t HAVE a coffer for years since the Marcos’ ran off with it and WE, the U.S. helped them do so.
Reply to anonymous at 4:13 PM on February 18:
“The U.S. liberated Philippines,,,,it was in our self-interest…”
Why was that? America lived for centuries with the Dutch East Indies. Why would Japan acquiring some colonial posessions have mattered? The USA should have avoided its drive into the Pacific at the turn of the last century. War with Japan could easily have been avoided.
SKIP at 6:38 PM: The coffers of the Phillipines are Chinese owned. The Chinese paid Marcos to allow them own the country. We own the Phillipines nothing, they’ve been running their own country in their own corrupt way since 1946.
Funny, I thought the Phillipino soldiers fought for themselves, to free there island from Japan - not for the US. In fact, it is the US that fought for them.
SKIP at 6:38 PM: The coffers of the Phillipines are Chinese owned. The Chinese paid Marcos to allow them own the country. We own the Phillipines nothing, they’ve been running their own country in their own corrupt way since 1946.
So you’re saying thaty we didn’t help Marcos run off with the treasury when he came here in exile?
I don’t know how much Marcos stole, and I don’t doubt that he came to the U.S. I’m just pointing out that the Chinese minority in the Phillipines, about 2 % if I recall correctly, own the place. Marcos money is only the amount that he could skim off the Chinese. The fact remains, the great bulk of the wealth of the Phillipines is owned by Chinese, not by the Marcos family. If the Filipinos want money, let them get it back from their minority masters.
According to my Philippino co-workers and Philippinos with whom I e-mail regularly, the Muslims from Kuwait and Saudi are buying into huge areas of the Philippine Islands. The Chinese may have competition.
I am filipino, and i am not happy with what lumpsum my veteran people can received in which my grand father is one of them. We really didnot fight for america. we fight for our country against those evil Japanese. it should not be america will give benefits to my people by means of money, because if we really think about it we filipino should be the one giving that to american people and be thankful to them because of the greatest help they give to us…( many american were killed just to free filipino people) filipino government should be the one the one giving benefits to those people who fight for the country, and again we filipino should be thankful to america…..wish america will use the money instead to help more there country.
It is s lie. These Fillipinos were not promised anything from the US, their own government payed them. The VA paid pensions and disability to Fillipinos who were in the US Army. Our nation is finished, these Marxist Democrats are deliberatly bankrupting our nation so they can establish a Communist Republic. Who wants to fight to stop this? No one was allowed to see what was in the stimulus package so now Marxist can now claim anything they want to.
