Supervisors Support Bid for Citizenship by Filipino Veterans

Mariano B. Campanilla was one of a group of Filipino World War II veterans who took a 43-year-old grievance to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, seeking support for federal legislation that would grant them and their comrades U.S. citizenship.

Campanilla, 73, who survived the infamous Death March on Bataan, never got a chance to speak to the supervisors. But he left the meeting pleased.

Rushing through their agenda, the board endorsed Campanilla’s cause unanimously. The supervisors’ move adds Los Angeles County to the ranks of other governmental bodies that have lent support for a federal bill that would grant citizenship to Filipino veterans.

“This was promised by President (Franklin D.) Roosevelt,” said Tirso Baldemor, president of the 2,000-member Alliance of Filipino American Veterans Organizations. Baldemor served in the U.S. Army and then joined American-led guerrilla units in the jungle-covered mountains after Japanese troops occupied the Philippines.

Campanilla and Baldemor were among thousands of Filipinos promised citizenship by Roosevelt if they fought for the United States during World War II. They were supposed to be able to apply for citizenship in their own country.

But for 10 critical months, from October, 1945, to August, 1946, immigration authorities withdrew from the Philippines at the urging of local authorities who were forming an independent government.

The law providing for citizenship expired at the end of 1946, and for thousands of veterans who wanted to apply in that period, the opportunity to become Americans was gone.

“It’s a very clear injustice,” said Campanilla, an attorney who has been living in Los Angeles since 1986 under a temporary permit. He said he is seeking citizenship so he can stay permanently and bring his family from the Philippines.

Supreme Court Ruling

In recent years, some Filipino veterans obtained citizenship through the courts. But the U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled that only Congress could grant citizenship to the veterans.

A group of the Filipino veterans then went to Los Angeles County’s little-known Veterans Advisory Commission seeking its support of legislation sponsored by Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) that would grant citizenship. The commission in turn recommended that supervisors support the legislation.

“By their combat service and personal sacrifice, these men have demonstrated greater dedication and effort in support of American values than many other people who have been granted citizenship,” the commission said.

According to the county Veterans Advisory Commission, the legislation will “bring relief to the remaining 60,000 to 80,000 Filipino veterans from the initial 175,000 to 200,000 troops who courageously risked their lives during World War II. Most of them are in their mid-60s to mid-90s, and little time remains to fulfill the nation’s promise to these brave men.”

Some of the veterans have applied for citizenship under the amnesty program, but they are concerned that if they pursue that course, they will have to wait another five years before they can become citizens.