[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 93 (Tuesday, July 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5411-H5412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                JUSTICE AND EQUITY FOR FILIPINO VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) is 
recognized during morning hour debate for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, what I want to do this afternoon is to 
bring to the attention of my colleagues and the American people a 
glaring injustice that has existed in this country for more than half a 
century, an injustice that was caused in 1946 and that we in this 
Congress in 1998 have a chance to remedy.
  Recently, this Congress passed a resolution of support and 
congratulations for the 100th anniversary of the independence of the 
Republic of the Philippines. We celebrated that anniversary as true 
partners in the world with the Philippine Republic. I said at that

[[Page H5412]]

time a few weeks ago that a better way to give honor to our allies in 
the Pacific, a better way to celebrate this 100th anniversary of our 
close partner, would be to remedy an injustice that was perpetrated on 
the brave veterans of the Philippine armed forces who fought side by 
side with the American Army in the liberation of the Pacific in World 
War II.
  The Philippine soldiers were drafted into World War II by our 
President Franklin Roosevelt. They fought side by side and helped to 
win the battle of the Pacific; and yet, after the war, all the benefits 
of being a veteran were taken away by the Congress of 1946.
  There is legislation in this House that is cosponsored by almost 200 
of us, legislation introduced by the distinguished Chairman of the 
House Committee on International Relations, the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Gilman) and myself, H.R. 836, called the Philippines Veterans 
Equity Act. Thanks to the Chairman of the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), we will be having a 
hearing on this legislation next week on July 22nd, a hearing on H.R. 
836, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act. That hearing promises to give 
the American people a living history lesson of past bravery and 
courage, much of it long forgotten by our current generation.
  The American people will hear from brave participants in the battles 
of Bataan and Corregidor. They will hear from survivors of the famous 
Bataan Death March in which thousands of Filipinos and Americans died. 
They will hear from guerilla fighters who, for 4 years in the 
Philippines, both held up the advance and the consolidation of power by 
the invaders and helped prepare the way for the return to the 
Philippines by General Douglas MacArthur. The story after that is well 
known, with MacArthur retaking the Philippines and using that as a base 
to regain the Pacific.
  What will be clear from this testimony next week at the House 
Committee on Veterans Affairs will be the bravery, the courage, the 
honor, the dignity and the loyalty of these veterans of World War II, 
and what will also be clear is the injustice that was perpetrated more 
than 50 years ago and the dishonor that was brought really to us as 
Americans by allowing this action. We took away the rights that they 
had earned as veterans of the American Armed Forces. To this day, they 
are still wanting a return of this honor and dignity. Of more than 
almost a quarter of a million who were alive during World War II, less 
than 75,000 are alive today.
  I plead with this Congress and with the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs to restore the honor and dignity to these brave veterans in the 
last years of their lives. Let us pass H.R. 836, the Filipino Veterans 
Equity Act. Let us restore the honor and dignity of these brave 
fighters of World War II. Let us grant equity to them now.
  We have apologized as a Nation for the internment of the Japanese in 
World War II. We have apologized to those soldiers at Tuskegee who were 
involuntarily subject to medical experiments which led to their death. 
It is time as a Nation that we apologize to the brave veterans of World 
War II who are from the Philippines. Let us pass H.R. 836. Let us give 
these soldiers their honor and dignity.

                          ____________________