Again, the World War II veterans

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

A report from Washington says that the current American Democratic candidates for President are supporting the laws that will grant full equity for the Filipino veterans of World War II. This is supposed to be the claim of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who are the main contenders for the Democratic Party candidacy.

At the same time, however, the same report said that, despite the big number of supporters for the bill that will call for some $1 Billion for the period of its tenure, it is doubtful that will be passed because of the growing budget deficit of the country and the pressure of the Iraq war on the US Veterans Administration.

How many other candidates and incumbents have tended before to help the Pinoy veterans, yet never succeeded? Thousands of those aging soldiers have actually moved to the United States in the hope that they will be granted the benefits that had been dangled over their heads for so many years, and yet had never gotten the approval of their lawmakers. Time and time again, the hopes of these poor old people got raised, until their ranks have slowly diminished, and even their beneficiaries have also grown so old that, perhaps, nobody will qualify for it even if it finally gets approved.

Let's hope this will not be another empty political promise, that is at the same time a very cruel one for the surviving warriors of World War II.

All these years, the veterans have been seeking to be given the same benefits as those enjoyed by the American soldiers they had fought side by side with. Lately, we understand, they have even indicated that they are willing to settle for less. But alas, their claims have been overtaken by another war, the protracted one in Iraq, which has given the US lawmakers another reason by citing the expenses both for the war and for the treatment of those wounded in that conflict. A Philippine Senator, Richard Gordon, continues to press veterans and their families to make a stronger lobby for the benefits in the form of letters, phone calls and other means of getting attention.

We hope they succeed. But we also fear that the 18,155 still living, out of the original claimants of 260,143, who must all be in their 80s or more now, may never see their hopes realized.*