Filipino Veterans Demand Benefits

Several dozen aging Filipino veterans of World War II showed up Friday at a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in downtown Los Angeles demanding medical benefits as former soldiers who risked their lives for the United States.

The orchestrated plea was the latest public event designed to build support for the veterans’ decades-long fight for full pensions and other benefits from Washington. Many brandished the military newspaper Stars and Stripes and copies of their discharge papers.

“We were loyal to America, we fought for this country, and we should be eligible for all of the benefits,” said Franco F. Arcebal, 77, who, like others, spoke of his sense of betrayal by Washington. He said he was captured and tortured by the occupying Japanese for his role in providing intelligence to U.S. troops.

The Filipinos contend that Congress wrongly withdrew their status as U.S. veterans after World War II. They have been seeking official recognition of their U.S. military service ever since, with mixed success.

Federal officials have vowed to review every application. Authorities stressed, however, that Congress has ruled that only one group of former Filipino fighters--those deemed “Old Scouts”--are entitled to the same level of medical coverage as regular U.S. veterans. The bulk of Filipino veterans are eligible for limited benefits, such as coverage of service-related disabilities and provision of burial allowances.

“We want to help as many of these people as we can, but we can’t go outside the law,” said John R. Mackay, financial operations manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health system in Los Angeles. “If Congress changes the rules, we’d be more than happy to accommodate all of them.”

Of 34 applicants who submitted paperwork Friday, Mackay said, six were deemed eligible and were issued veterans health cards. The other applications were forwarded to a regional veterans center in Atlanta for additional verification, the official added.

Several bills pending on Capitol Hill would provide full benefits to the estimated 55,000 surviving Filipino veterans. About 13,000 live in the United States, perhaps one-third of them in Southern California; most acquired U.S. citizenship through a 1990 law. The rest remain in the Philippines.

The dwindling ranks of survivors in the United States are mostly lower-income retirees who live off Social Security benefits and federal welfare payouts, said Eric Lachica, Washington-based executive director of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans. Many are anxious to increase their limited incomes and have access to the large network of veterans hospitals and clinics, including the downtown site where Friday’s protest took place.

“We want money,” said Aurora Arcibal, 75, of Long Beach, who donned a neck scarf with a U.S. flag motif as she stood outside the veterans clinic.

Her husband, Manuel Arcibal, 87, thin and feeble, sat in a wheelchair nearby. She said the couple would like to return to their Philippine homeland and live out their last days, but they do not want to abandon the fight for full recognition.