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Group Asks Bush for More Fil-Am Veteran Benefits

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A group is calling on President George W. Bush to grant Filipinos who fought in World War II the same rights and benefits U.S. veterans receive.

An estimated 14,000 Filipino veterans of the war are living in the United States, and “a good percentage of those ... are financially destitute,” said Cesar Patulot, chairman of the Filipino International Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The Philippines was a U.S. territory when Japan attacked it in 1941. About 400,000 Filipinos served in the war.

Those Filipino veterans who came to the United States didn’t gain citizenship until 1990. In 1999, President Clinton signed laws giving them limited benefits, including burial benefits and cash for veterans who wanted to return to their homeland.

Patulot said Filipino veterans deserve full military benefits.

“Why recognize them incrementally?” he said. “They are either veterans or they are not. ... There’s no such thing as 50 percent veteran.”