This is a statement from Justice for Filipino-American Veterans, issued on the occasion of their Veterans Day march.
STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE, EQUITY AND PEACE, FIGHT RACISM!
Sixty-four years ago, the 79th U.S. Congress stripped more than 250,000 Filipino World War II veterans and their widows of the rights, privileges and benefits due to them for their service, on the basis of national economic needs.
Sixty-four years later, in 2009, the new Obama administration passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which gave the Filipino veterans a lump sum payment “as a compensation for their human sufferings” NOT as a recognition of their military service.
Filipino-Americans protested the fact that the Bush regime and later the Obama administration bailed out the big corporations and banks, spend trillions in a war against Iraq and Afghanistan and only gave a measly $198 million lump sum for our veterans. Although it is outrageous and insulting, the remaining 60,000 veterans accepted this compensation. More than 46,000 Filipino veterans filed for claims.
But alas, of the more than 42,000 verified claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs denied more than 22,000 claims. Still pending are more than 8,000 claims.
But the worst is yet to come. The DVA asked the 22,000 denied claimants to file an appeal claims that will take 18 months to process. In the 18 months, the veteran can be denied two times and finally in the last month, receive a FINAL DENIAL. This is really outrageous and terrible
Justice For Filipino American Veterans, an organization of veterans, widows and advocates, cannot take this anymore. As an immediate action after exhausting all the avenues available, JFAV decided to file a civil case against the DVA for the claims failure.
On October 8, 2010 JFAV and two other organizations AWARE and the MHC filed the case of 23 widows and veterans against the DVA in the Federal Court of Northern California. JFAV and the veterans will soon file cases in Washington state, Virginia and San Diego.
In this landmark case our battle will open in a new arena through the litigation in court. We are ready to fight even up to the halls of the Supreme Court and again in the U.S. Congress next year.
Claims Failure, Claims Denied is Justice Denied!
It is not enough that the veterans and their widows have suffered for 64 years, fighting for their cause. They have filed case after case, lobbied in the halls of congress and gone to the polls to elect officials who will listen to them. Finally, after being gracious and accepting a deal that came “ to late and too little,” is this the reward that they deserve?
Why were the veterans who have already passed away, their widows and heirs not included in the lump sum payments? Why does the DVA require the veterans to be listed in the so-called “Missouri list” in order to receive the lump sum claims?
No Debt of Gratitude
Is it not enough that the Philippines suffered in the crucible of war with more than one million deaths and the devastation of the whole country? Yet their veterans are not treated the same as the American veterans with whom they served side by side,while the rest of the 65 nationalities that served the United States in WWII received the same benefits as the U.S. soldiers.
We say enough is enough. We march today to protest this senseless discrimination and blatant racism. What else can we call this policy but plain and simple racism. Jim Crow is not dead. He is living in what they call the post racial society that is today!
We march and protest this senseless injustice and inequity against our elders, our women and our community! We must correct the wrongs and do the right thing!
MARCH FOR JUSTICE, EQUITY AND PEACE!
