[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
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(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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