[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9048-9049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

  (Mr. HONDA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, as Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific 
American Caucus, I rise today to recognize Asian Pacific American 
Heritage Month, the month of May.
  As we celebrate the contributions and achievements of our community, 
I also want to pay special attention to the 250,000 Filipino World War 
II veterans President Roosevelt called into military service on July 
26, 1941.
  Of the 22,000 surviving Filipino veterans, I want to highlight 
Faustino ``Peping'' Baclig. Peping was one of the 75,000 Filipino and 
U.S. soldiers subjected to the 90-mile Bataan Death March. He survived 
the Japanese atrocities and fought side by side with the Americans only 
to have his service as a U.S. national and a veteran denied by the 1946 
Rescission Act passed by Congress.
  We now have a unique opportunity to undo the injustice of that act 
and give them recognition of a grateful Nation that their service to 
our country is just as equal as the soldiers with whom


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they stood shoulder to shoulder on the field of battle.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Filipino Veterans 
Equity Act.

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