Backstory of war veterans’ benefits

Former Philippine ambassador to the United States Willy Gaa—the point person of the campaign to have the US government grant financial assistance to Filipino veterans of World War II—died last Dec. 2 from a lingering illness at the age of 69. He served as envoy from 2006 to 2011.

Gaa’s tour of duty coincided with the 2008 US housing mortgage crisis, the worst economic problem to hit America since the Great Depression in 1929. But as fate would have it, that crisis was a blessing in disguise to some 15,000 surviving Filipino soldiers who fought with American soldiers in the Philippines in the last war.

Then US President Franklin Roosevelt promised the Filipino soldiers that they would be given the same benefits that their American counterparts would receive for their services. But the promise was overturned after the war, when the US Congress passed the Rescission Act disqualifying Filipino veterans from receiving war benefits.

For more than six decades, the Philippine government tried, but failed, to convince the US government to give the Filipino veterans the benefits promised them.

Sometime in 2007, Gaa, in cooperation with Filipino veterans organizations based in the United States, intensified efforts to convince the US government to help ameliorate the living conditions of the surviving veterans.

Gaa enlisted in this move then Sen. Richard Gordon who, as former mayor of Olongapo City (which hosted the erstwhile Subic Naval Base, then the largest such US facility outside the mainland), was known in American political and military circles for his advocacy concerning the abandoned children of US servicemen with Filipino women.

Using his connections in the US Capitol, Gaa was able to talk to senators and congressmen about the plight of Filipino veterans. He was aided in his efforts by then Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Japanese-American war hero since deceased. Inouye’s standing as senator for more than four decades (which entitled him to the perks and privileges that go with seniority) enabled Gaa and Gordon to secure appointments with key congressional leaders.

A US senator opposed to the benefits cited a US policy prohibiting the grant of financial assistance to countries that engage in extrajudicial killings. He was under the impression that extrajudicial killings in the Philippines were sanctioned by the government or that it did nothing to prosecute the people behind them.

Gaa denied that imputation and said all efforts were being taken by the Philippine government to put an end to this activity and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Another US senator justified his objection by saying that a Philippine law (Republic Act No. 6948) bars Filipino veterans and surviving spouses from receiving pension benefits from the US government. The law states that a veteran or his or her surviving spouse shall be paid old-age pension unless he or she “is actually receiving a similar pension for the same consideration from other government funds or from the United States Government.”

This disclosure threw a monkey wrench into the lobbying efforts. It was the first time Gaa and Gordon learned about that legal obstacle.

Embarrassed by this information, Gordon immediately returned to the country to resolve that issue. He and then Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. worked together for the enactment of RA 9499, which removed the provision in the law earlier mentioned barring Filipino veterans and their surviving spouses from receiving pension benefits from the US government.

The removal of that kink was quickly conveyed to the US senator concerned and the other senators who shared his view.

Nonetheless, the lobbying efforts were an uphill climb. With the US economy in the doldrums, the US lawmakers were not in a charitable mood, more so if it meant payout to citizens of other countries. After all, charity begins at home.

Unfazed, Gaa and the US-based Filipino veterans organizations worked the phones, sent letters to members of the US Congress, and used all legitimate lobbying tactics to get their message across. They adopted a new tack in the campaign: Use the economic stimulus program being pushed by US President Barack Obama’s administration as the vehicle to provide financial assistance to Filipino veterans who are American citizens.

The idea was to put a provision (or rider) in the US national budget creating a special fund that will make a one-time payment to members of this segment of American society, to help them cope with the adverse effects of the 2008 economic crisis.

American tax money will be used to give financial assistance to American citizens. In the course of the discussion, it was suggested that Filipino veterans living in the Philippines might as well be included in the fund since they also fought in the war and needed to be helped, too.

The gambit worked. After several months of negotiations, Obama signed into law the 2009 US national budget which contained a rider allocating $198 million to a Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund.

The fund gives a one-time payment of $15,000 to eligible veterans who are American citizens and $9,000 to non-US citizen veterans. The payment process started shortly after the approval of the implementing rules and regulations.

For the Filipino veterans, it was a small victory (but a victory no less) in their long quest for recognition of their services to their former colonial masters.

Raul J. Palabrica (rpalabrica@inquirer.com.ph) writes a weekly column in the Business section of the Inquirer.