Surviving Filipino -American WW II veterans march on November 11, 2018 in San Francisco to commemorate Veteran’s Day. (Photo: Ago Pedalizo)
Updated: November 11, 2018, 6:30 PM
Statement by Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)
Unconditional Recognition To Those Who Served This Country
Filipino American veterans are dismayed that President Trump failed to visit the American cemetery outside of Paris to pay tribute to the nearly 2,300 war dead buried at the site of the June 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood. It would have been a historic gesture from a president to mark the centenary of the end of WW I.
(Photo: Art Garcia)
This action by Trump adds salt to wounds of Filipino American WW II veterans who fought and won the war in the Philippines, an American soil before and during the war, and yet after 73 years have not been fully recognized as American veterans with equal benefits as their American counterparts.
The recent US Congressional medal award is yet another recognition to the gallantry of the veterans, but run short of providing full benefits including military pensions to the veterans and their widows. We can never close this dark chapter in America until we fully rectify an error of discriminating a particular race out of the 66 Allied nationalities who served the US in WW II.
We rejoice in the victory of the Democrats in the US House and hope that Congresswoman Jackie Speier re-introduce the bill on Filipino Veterans Equity. We also hold Philippine Congressman Gary Alejano accountable on his promise to introduce resolution supporting such clamor for justice.
-Arturo Garcia
National Coordinator
Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)
Art Garcia (left) with Violy Reyes and Ago Pedalizo, stalwarts of the Filipino American Human Rights Alliance (FAHRA) (Photo: Art Garcia)
https://philippinecanadiannews.com/canada/aala-alanin-natin-sila/
A VETERAN’S SON REMEMBERS
By Ted Alcuitas
This month as we pause to remember the men and women who served in our armed forces,I would like to share my memories of my father and the Pacific War that engulfed the Philippines.
A war that shaped so much of our lives and many others.
I never had a picture of my Papa in uniform, but I found a laminated certificate of his military training which he proudly kept.
I was exactly two years old on Dec.8, 1941 when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, ten hours after they bombed Pearl Harbour which started World War 11.
Papa was the encargado or overseer of Hacienda Osmena, owned by the Commonwealth Vice-president Sergio Osmena, Sr.
He joined the guerrilla forces immediately and rose to the rank of Lieutenant and was of course in the battlefield leaving my mother with seven of us (me as the youngest). I remember Japanese soldiers come to the house looking for our father with me tugging at my mother’s skirt scared.
An internal rivalry within my father’s guerrilla unit forced him to flee our town to save his life. Leaving his whole family behind, he fled to the neighbouring province of Leyte to join another guerrilla forces commanded by his namesake,Lt. Col. Ruperto Kangleon.
According to my sister Pauline, Kangleon and his family were helped by Papa when he escaped Imprisonment and passed through Carcar before going back to Leyte to regroup his force. That is how the two men knew each other.
Papa quickly rose to the ranks and was made Quartermaster – in charge of procuring and distributing supplies.
A harrowing crossing by sea
Less than a year after joining Kangleon’s forces, Papa came back to fetch us. With two of his trusted men, he huddled all of us in a wooden boat and hopped from island to island until we finally landed in Maasin, Leyte.
I did not have any recollection of the horrors of this ocean trip but my siblings recounted that one night, our boat was intercepted by a Japanese patrol.
Papa ordered his men to be ready to fight it out in case the Japanese boarded our boat and discover the whole family huddled covered with coconut leaves.
The stars must have been with us that night and Papa was able to convince the soldiers that he just an ordinary fisherman and allow us to continue our journey.
We returned to our native Carcar when the war ended in 1945.
Papa, like other WW11 Filipino veterans were supposed to be compensated for veteran’s benefits by the U.S. for they were deputized and fought under the American flag.
But sadly, after sacrificing their lives and their families to fight a war not of their own making, these veterans were abandoned by the American government and were not given recognition.
And so another battle began lasting for more than 60 years.
In February 2009, President Barack Obama finally signed the bill that gave them recognition and each qualified, living veteran was awarded a one-time lump sum payment of $15,000.
Papa died on September 21, 1989.
Originally published; October 2015
Philippine Asian News Today