Caucus wants to help Filipino veterans

A congressional group representing Americans of Asian and Pacific heritage backed legislation Wednesday to reverse a six-decades-old law and award veterans' benefits to Filipinos who fought with the U.S. forces in World War II.

Rep. Mike Honda said the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, which he heads, considers giving full equity of benefits for an estimated 20,000 surviving veterans a top legislative goal of the caucus.

Both Honda and Rep. Bob Filner, the bill's sponsor, are Democrats from California, where many Filipino immigrants live.

Originally, 250,000 Filipinos were recruited, mostly in 1941 as the United States built forces to counter any Japanese attacks on U.S. interests. The Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth then, and a U.S. naval station on Cavite peninsula across Manila Bay from the capital was attacked hours after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

The recruits were promised they would be treated as U.S. veterans regarding benefits. The Pacific war ended in August 1945.

Honda, a Japanese-American, said Wednesday that he considers the 1946 decision "one of the greatest injustices ever perpetrated by the Congress."

The proposed law would remove the rescission from the 1946 statute and restore the promised equity, Honda said. It would not be retroactive, and families of the veterans who have died would receive no benefits.

Ben de Guzman, with the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity, said the law would affect about 13,000 Filipino veterans still alive in their homeland and about 7,000 surviving veterans in the United States.