Honoring their uncommon valor

After more than 70 years, the United States has finally acknowledged the military service and sacrifice of some 250,000 Filipino soldiers and guerrillas who fought alongside their American counterparts during World War II.

Last week, 100-year-old Celestino Almeda and the few surviving Filipino war veterans received the long overdue honor promised by US President Franklin Roosevelt when he called on all organized military forces from Allied nations to join the fight against the Axis powers.

Almeda, who received the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States’ highest civilian honor, said that while he was grateful to have seen this auspicious day, some 57,000 of his comrades had passed on without seeing the dawn, as it were, so long was the wait.

He had also been fighting to receive the $15,000 lump-sum payment promised Filipino veterans under the US economic stimulus law of 2009.

US House Speaker Paul Ryan described the recognition as “long, long overdue.”

One might even add that the honor was also skimpy recompense for the affront that Filipino war veterans suffered when the benefits promised them were unceremoniously withdrawn by then US President Harry S. Truman.

Of the 66 allied nations, the Philippines was singled out for this humiliation.

For years and despite representation and entreaties, recognition eluded the Filipino veterans, some of whom had to share decrepit housing in dangerous neighborhoods in the United States as they waited out their fate in endless congressional hearings.

It is “frankly shameful,” US Sen. Mazie Hirono said, “that these veterans had to fight so hard for what they were promised.”

Like Almeda, the Filipino fighters who joined their American brothers in battle were at the prime of youth and risked their life and future to repel the enemy. Only about 18,000 of them are still alive.

Speaker Ryan described those who responded to Roosevelt’s call as young men who mostly had no formal training, most of whom had never held a weapon, but who willingly risked their lives.

“They battled not only the enemy, but [also] starvation and malnutrition. But they never lost sight of the cause. And they never accepted defeat,” Ryan said.

More than 10,000 Americans and nearly one million Filipinos, mostly civilians, paid the ultimate price for joining the Allied forces.

As Filipino historians like to point out, the incredible valor and sacrifice of the Filipino resistance movement wrecked the enemy’s timetable for invasion and dominance in the Pacific, and helped turned the tide of war.

Being ignored, forgotten or stripped of privileges was definitely not part of the equation.

But, as Senator Hirono noted, even after their service “was practically erased from American records … these veterans never gave up.”

Their abiding faith in the system apparently paid off and Filipino veterans got the much deserved recognition that would “immortalize the legacy of great liberators who have paved the way for generations to follow,” as Ryan put it.

In their motherland, Filipino veterans continue to wage a war of attrition for government recognition of their war contribution. Their pitiful pensions are a virtual and constant slap on the face and an insult to their valor.

With the measly pensions they receive from the government, most Filipino veterans seem fated to spend their last few years in painful penury.

This time around, recognition shouldn’t be the ultimate goal of the government. Veterans already enjoy recognition and privilege on occasions meant to remember the war and memorialize their heroism.

In fact, what the government fails to realize is that along with recognition, providing these veterans the requisite wherewithal to live the rest of their lives in comfort and dignity is just as important.

Funds must be sourced to give our veterans what they truly deserve — the recognition that heroes deserve especially in the most vulnerable period of their life.