[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 113 (Wednesday, July 13, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5092-S5094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 FILIPINO VETERANS OF WORLD WAR II CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL ACT OF 2015

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from 
further consideration of S. 1555 and the Senate proceed to its 
immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1555) to award a Congressional Gold Medal, 
     collectively, to the Filipino veterans of World War II, in 
     recognition of the dedicated service of the veterans during 
     World War II.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered 
made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (S. 1555) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, 
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:

                                S. 1555

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Filipino Veterans of World 
     War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) The First Philippine Republic was founded as a result 
     of the Spanish-American War in which Filipino revolutionaries 
     and the United States Armed Forces fought to overthrow 
     Spanish colonial rule. On June 12, 1898, Filipinos declared 
     the Philippines to be an independent and sovereign nation. 
     The Treaty of Paris negotiated between the United States and 
     Spain ignored this declaration of independence, and the 
     United States paid Spain $20,000,000 to cede control of the 
     Philippines to the United States. Filipino nationalists who 
     sought independence rather than a change in colonial rulers 
     clashed with forces of the United States in the Islands. The 
     Philippine-American War, which officially lasted for 3 years 
     from 1899 to 1902, led to the establishment of the United 
     States civil government in the Philippines.
       (2) In 1901, units of Filipino soldiers who fought for the 
     United States against the nationalist insurrection were 
     formally incorporated into the United States Army as the 
     Philippine Scouts.

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       (3) In 1934, the Philippine Independence Act (Public Law 
     73-127; 48 Stat. 456) established a timetable for ending 
     colonial rule of the United States. Between 1934 and 
     Philippine independence in 1946, the United States retained 
     sovereignty over Philippine foreign policy and reserved the 
     right to call Filipinos into the service of the United States 
     Armed Forces.
       (4) On December 21 1935, President of the Philippine 
     Commonwealth, Manuel Quezon, signed the National Defense Act, 
     passed by the Philippine Assembly. General Douglas MacArthur 
     set upon the task of creating an independent army in the 
     Philippines, consisting of a small regular force, the 
     Philippine Constabulary, a police force created during the 
     colonial period of the United States, and reservists. By July 
     1941, the Philippine army had 130,000 reservists and 6,000 
     officers.
       (5) On July 26, 1941, as tensions with Japan rose in the 
     Pacific, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used his authority 
     vested in the Constitution of the United States and the 
     Philippine Independence Act to ``call into service of the 
     United States . . . all of the organized military forces of 
     the Government of the Philippines.'' On July 27th, 1941, in 
     accordance with a War Department directive received a day 
     earlier, the United States Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) 
     was established, and Manila was designated as the command 
     headquarters. Commander of the USAFFE, General Douglas 
     MacArthur, planned to absorb the entire Philippine army into 
     the USAFFE in phases. The first phase, which began on 
     September 1, 1941, included 25,000 men and 4,000 officers.
       (6) Filipinos who served in the USAFFE included--
       (A) the Philippine Scouts, who comprised half of the 22,532 
     soldiers in the Philippine Department, or United States Army 
     garrison stationed in the Islands at the start of the war;
       (B) the Philippine Commonwealth Army;
       (C) the new Philippine Scouts, or Filipinos who volunteered 
     to serve with the United States Army when the United States 
     Armed Forces returned to the island;
       (D) Filipino civilians who volunteered to serve in the 
     United States Armed Forces in 1945 and 1946, and who became 
     ``attached'' to various units of the United States Army; and
       (E) the ``Guerrilla Services'' who had fought behind enemy 
     lines throughout the war.
       (7) Even after hostilities ceased, wartime service of the 
     new Philippine Scouts continued as a matter of law until the 
     end of 1946, and the force gradually disbanded until it was 
     disestablished in 1950.
       (8) On December 8th, 1941, not even 24 hours after the 
     bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Imperial forces attacked 
     bases of the United States Army in the Philippines.
       (9) In the spring of 1942, the Japanese 14th Army overran 
     the Bataan Peninsula, and, after a heroic but futile defense, 
     more than 78,000 members of the United States Armed Forces 
     were captured, specifically 66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 
     service members from the United States. The Japanese 
     transferred the captured soldiers from Bataan to Camp 
     O'Donnell, in what is now known as the infamous Bataan Death 
     March. Forced to march the 70-mile distance in 1 week, 
     without adequate food, water, or medicine, nearly 700 members 
     of the United States Armed Forces and an estimated 6,000 to 
     10,000 Filipinos perished during the journey.
       (10) After the fall of the Bataan Peninsula, the Japanese 
     Army turned its sights on Corregidor. The estimated forces in 
     defense of Corregidor totaled 13,000, and were comprised of 
     members of the United States Armed Forces and Filipino 
     troops. Of this number, 800 were killed, 1,000 were wounded, 
     and 11,000 were captured and forced to march through the city 
     of Manila, after which the captured troops were distributed 
     to various POW camps. The rest of the captured troops escaped 
     to organize or join an underground guerrilla army.
       (11) Even before the fall of Corregidor, Philippine 
     resistance, in the form of guerrilla armies, began to wage 
     warfare on the Japanese invaders. Guerrilla armies, from 
     Northern Luzon to Mindanao--
       (A) raided Japanese camps, stealing weapons and supplies;
       (B) sabotaged and ambushed Japanese troops on the move; and
       (C) with little weaponry, and severely outmatched in 
     numbers, began to extract victories.
       (12) Japanese intelligence reports reveal that from the 
     time the Japanese invaded until the return of the United 
     States Armed Forces in the summer of 1944, an estimated 
     300,000 Filipinos continued to fight against Japanese forces. 
     Filipino resistance against the Japanese was so strong that, 
     in 1942, the Imperial Army formed the Morista Butai, a unit 
     designated to suppress guerrillas.
       (13) Because Philippine guerrillas worked to restore 
     communication with United States forces in the Pacific, 
     General MacArthur was able to use the guerrillas in advance 
     of a conventional operation and provided the headquarters of 
     General MacArthur with valuable information. Guerrillas 
     captured and transmitted to the headquarters of General 
     MacArthur Japanese naval plans for the Central Pacific, 
     including defense plans for the Mariana Islands. Intelligence 
     derived from guerrillas relating to aircraft, ship, and troop 
     movements allowed for Allied forces to attack Japanese supply 
     lines and guerrillas and even directed United States 
     submarines where to land agents and cargo on the Philippine 
     coast.
       (14) On December 20, 1941, President Roosevelt signed the 
     Selective Training and Service Amendments Act (Public Law 77-
     360; 55 Stat. 844) which, among other things, allowed 
     Filipinos in the United States to enlist in the United States 
     Armed Forces. In February 1942, President Roosevelt issued 
     the Second War Powers Act (Public Law 77-507; 56 Stat. 176), 
     promising a simplified naturalization process for Filipinos 
     who served in the United States Armed Forces. Subsequently, 
     16,000 Filipinos in California alone decided to enlist.
       (15) The mobilization of forces included the activation and 
     assumption of command of the First Filipino Infantry 
     Battalion on April 1, 1942, at Camp San Luis Obispo, 
     California. Orders were issued to activate the First Filipino 
     Infantry Regiment and Band at Salinas, California, effective 
     July 13, 1942. The activation of the Second Filipino Infantry 
     Regiment occurred at Fort Ord, California, on November 21, 
     1942. Nearly 9,000 Filipinos and Filipino Americans fought in 
     the United States Army 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry 
     Regiments.
       (16) Soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments 
     participated in the bloody combat and mop-up operations at 
     New Guinea, Leyte, Samar, Luzon, and the Southern 
     Philippines. In 1943, 800 men were selected from the 1st and 
     2nd Regiments and shipped to Australia to receive training in 
     intelligence gathering, sabotage, and demolition. Reorganized 
     as part of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, this group was 
     sent to the Philippines to coordinate with major guerrilla 
     armies in the Islands. Members of the 1st Regiment were also 
     attached to the United States 6th Army ``Alamo Scouts'', a 
     reconnaissance group that traveled 30 miles behind enemy 
     lines to free Allied prisoners from the Cabanatuan death camp 
     on January 30, 1945. In addition, in 1945, according to the 
     441st Counter Intelligence Unit of the United States Armed 
     Forces, Philippine guerrillas provided ``very important 
     information and sketches of enemy positions and 
     installations'' for the liberation of the Santo Tomas 
     prisoner of war camp, an event that made front page news 
     across the United States.
       (17) In March 1944, members of the 2nd Filipino Infantry 
     Regiment were selected for special assignments, including 
     intelligence missions, and reorganized as the 2nd Filipino 
     Infantry Battalion (Separate). The 2nd Filipino Infantry 
     Battalion (Separate) contributed to mop-up operations as a 
     civil affairs unit.
       (18) Filipinos participated in the war out of national 
     pride, as well as out of a commitment to the Allied forces 
     struggle against fascism. 57,000 Filipinos in uniform died in 
     the war effort. Estimates of civilian deaths range from 
     700,000 to upwards of 1,000,000, or between 4.38 to 6.25 
     percent of the prewar population of 16,000,000.
       (19) Because Filipinos who served in the Commonwealth Army 
     of the Philippines were originally considered a part of the 
     Allied struggle, the military order issued by President 
     Roosevelt on July 26, 1941, stated that Filipinos who served 
     in the Commonwealth Army of the Philippines were entitled to 
     full veterans benefits. The guarantee to pay back the service 
     of Filipinos through veterans benefits was reversed by the 
     Rescission Acts of 1946 (Public Laws 79-301 and 79-391; 60 
     Stat. 6 and 60 Stat. 221), which deemed that the wartime 
     service of the Commonwealth Army of the Philippines and the 
     new Philippine Scouts was not considered active and, 
     therefore, did not qualify for benefits.
       (20) The loyal and valiant Filipino Veterans of World War 
     II fought, suffered, and, in many instances, died in the same 
     manner and under the same commander as other members of the 
     United States Armed Forces during World War II.
       (21) The Filipino Veterans of World War II fought 
     alongside, and as an integral part of, the United States 
     Armed Forces. The Philippines remained a territory of the 
     United States for the duration of the war and, accordingly, 
     the United States maintained sovereignty over Philippine 
     foreign relations, including Philippine laws enacted by the 
     Philippine Government. Filipinos who fought in the 
     Philippines were not only defending or fighting for the 
     Philippines, but also defending, and ultimately liberating, 
     sovereign territory held by the United States Government.
       (22) The United States remains forever indebted to the 
     bravery, valor, and dedication that the Filipino Veterans of 
     World War II displayed. Their commitment and sacrifice 
     demonstrates a highly uncommon and commendable sense of 
     patriotism and honor.

     SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

       In this Act--
        (a) the term ``Filipino Veterans of World War II'' 
     includes any individual who served--
       (1) honorably at any time during the period beginning on 
     July 26, 1941, and ending on December 31, 1946;
       (2) in an active-duty status under the command of the 
     United States Armed Forces in the Far East; and
       (3)(A) within the Philippine Commonwealth Army, the 
     Philippine Scouts, the Philippine Constabulary, Recognized 
     Guerrilla units, the New Philippine Scouts, the First 
     Filipino Infantry Regiment, the Second Filipino Infantry 
     Battalion (Separate), or the First Reconnaissance Battalion; 
     or
       (B) commanding or serving in a unit described in paragraph 
     (3)(A) as a United States military officer or enlisted 
     soldier; and

[[Page S5094]]

       (b) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 
     Treasury.

     SEC. 4. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

       (a) Award Authorized.--The President pro tempore of the 
     Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall 
     make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of 
     Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design to the 
     Filipino Veterans of World War II in recognition of the 
     dedicated service of the veterans during World War II.
       (b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award 
     referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary shall strike the 
     Gold Medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, 
     to be determined by the Secretary.
       (c) Smithsonian Institution.--
       (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal in 
     honor of the Filipino Veterans of World War II, the gold 
     medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it 
     will be available for display as appropriate and made 
     available for research.
       (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
     the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal 
     received under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere, 
     particularly at other appropriate locations associated with 
     the Filipino Veterans of World War II.
       (d) Duplicate Medals.--
       (1) In general.--Under regulations that the Secretary may 
     promulgate, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 
     bronze of the gold medal struck under this Act, at a price 
     sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, 
     materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.
       (2) Sale of duplicate medals.--The amounts received from 
     the sale of duplicate medals under paragraph (1) shall be 
     deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

     SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.

       (a) National Medals.--Medals struck under this Act are 
     national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, 
     United States Code.
       (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of 
     title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this 
     Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.

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