Filipino American Veterans March for Equity

By M.S. Deshmukh
Special to AsianWeek

Under an overcast San Francisco sky on Sunday morning, the Filipino American contingent of the Veteran’s Day parade stood before City Hall at the end of the parade route and used its time in front of the mayor’s viewing platform to chant, “What do we want? Justice for veterans! When do we want it? Equity now!”

The contingent consisted of two boxcars carrying more than 30 Filipino American veterans of the Second World War, nearly a dozen spouses of veterans and two marching units, one made up of the Filipino American Veterans Association and the other of local college students and young people.

The justice they seek is the recognition of Filipino American World War II veterans as veterans of the United States Armed Forces. They have been denied that recognition since 1946, when congress passed the Surplus Appropriation Rescission Act, which rescinded the U.S. Army status of the 100,000 Filipino soldiers who were called into service in the U.S. Armed Forces of the Far East (USAFFE). These veterans also lost the benefits that go along with that status and to which all American soldiers — with whom they fought to liberate the Philippines from Japanese control and prevent Japanese expansion in the Western Pacific theater — are entitled.

Their legal status uncertain, aging Filipino veterans celebrate Veteran’s Day.

At a stop light, Luisa Antonio, the executive director of the San Francisco Veterans Equity Center — the nonprofit that, for the second year in a row, has organized this group of veterans to march together in the parade — stepped onto the street and looked back at the trolleys. “A lot of these veterans salute them as they’re passing by,” she said. “But the sad reality is that they are not classified as U.S. veterans.”

In spite of a rainy morning and a lower turnout than expected, the energy on the cars was a happy one, with young Filipino American students sitting beside the veterans and their spouses, everyone chanting and Rasta Phil Chaves playing the ukulele.

Fidela Cara, whose veteran husband passed away earlier this year, explained with a smile why she’d come out. “Rain or shine, we have to do it,” she said. “We need equity.”

Over the sounds of “Rivers of Babylon,” Commander Bablito Nidua, who served in Hanoi as a USAFFE guerilla, talked about why he was marching in his first Veterans Day parade, having arrived in the United States in June of 2001. “It is important to commemorate and to show to the people that we are still here in America, enjoying and also aspiring for some benefits,” he said. “You know, we are already facing the sunset of our lives.”

The issue of age is at the heart of the urgency of the efforts of the VEC and the National Network for Veterans Equity to introduce and pass equity legislature in Congress. One of the chants the group of young Filipino Americans marching with the veterans shouted as they made their way down Market Street to City Hall went, “Five to seven die a day. Give us justice, give us pay.”

Antonio explained that most of the World War II veterans she sees at the VEC each day have only been in this country a short time, since former President George Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990. This act granted U.S. citizenship to those who had served in the USAFFE during the Second World War.

“Very, very few are lucky to have their wives or their children in this country as well,” Antonio said. “Ninety five percent of them are alone and they don’t have any support system other than the VEC and other support organizations.”

This fact often leaves the VEC in charge of making funeral arrangements for veterans in San Francisco when they pass away. With U.S. Army status, the families of deceased veterans like Fidela Cara’s husband would be given government money towards these arrangements and have access to military burial sites, not to mention proper medical treatment while they are alive and in this country.

Yet, even as the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Filipino American World War II veterans who live in the Bay Area — of the more than 24,000 veterans who immigrated to the United States as citizens after the 1990 Immigration Act — continue to make their way without the benefit of official equity, their situation is far from ideal.

Roy Recio, secretary of the board for the VEC, says that the veterans his organization serves have been neglected by the country which they fought for, which granted them citizenship but did not afford them the benefits they would need to be taken care of here.

“A lot of them live in the Tenderloin and South of Market in SRO hotel rooms,” Recio said. “They live three, four, five to a room, and they’re neglected.

Describing how the VEC provides for these aging Filipino Americans, Recio said the office offers, “social services, bereavement, recreation, housing assistance, and just day-to-day living skills.” The VEC, he explained, “gets these seniors the benefits and some services they don’t get in the mainstream social services mecca of San Francisco.”

With Homeland Security flagged as the focus of the next session of Congress, veteran’s equity organizations are aware that they will have a tough time getting their issue on the floor. Since their benefits were stripped by the 79th Congress, the House has heard a few equity bills, but the Filipino American soldiers who fought and sacrificed alongside American soldiers in the Pacific have yet to see full benefits, and with each day their numbers dwindle.

The community is aware of this. As they marched down Market Street, the Filipino American veterans group sang, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

But, it was Veterans Day, and they are proud veterans of the U.S. Army, whether they are recognized or not. All together, young and old, they also chanted “Mabu, mabu, mabu … Hai, hai, hai.” Long life. They chanted it loudly, and rode along in the parade where they belonged by right if not by law, waving and smiling.