Philippines seeks US help for vets

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario has asked the US Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to reconsider the cases of Filipino World War II (WWII) veterans who were denied benefits under a recently passed US law.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila said Del Rosario made the appeal during a meeting with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki in Washington, D.C. last week.

“Secretary Del Rosario urged the DVA to reconsider the cases of certain veterans denied benefits under the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund. [The fund] requires that the name of a veteran, to be eligible for benefits, appear in both the roster of troops prepared by the US Army after the war and the individual folders of veterans containing their discharge papers (AGO Form 23),” the DFA said in a statement.

The fund, approved in February 2009, authorized the release of a one-time lump-sum payment to eligible WWII veterans from the Philippines. The payments were to be made through the DVA from a $198 million (about P8.6 billion) appropriation.

Del Rosario also asked Shinseki to continue US government support for the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

For his part, Shinseki committed to look at a fair procedure with regard to the required documentation of WWII veterans.

He also conveyed to Del Rosario the DVA’s continuing support for the Philippine hospital, the latest in the form of a two-year program that would upgrade the medical center’s technical and diagnostic capabilities.

“We have a special obligation, a special responsibility to the young men and women who fought during the war,” Shinseki was quoted as saying by the DFA.