Filvets dwindling as they await US pension

MANILA, Philippines - The remaining Filipino veterans who have survived World World War some 60 years ago are losing the battle to stay alive and reap the recently approved US benefits as 10 of them die everyday out of old age. Citing data from the US Veterans Affairs Office, former Sandiganbayan justice Manuel Pamaran said claiming benefits for the surviving Filipino soldiers has become a critical race against time. “Ten veterans die everyday. Time is really against the veterans," Pamaran, vice president of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines, told GMANews.TV on Tuesday. Pamaran, who served alongside American soldiers during WWII as a private first class, said that the Philippine government could “put more pressure" on the visiting US Veterans Affairs officials to speed up the process and accord the veterans the benefits they deserve. “The Philippine government may not have jurisdiction over the process since it is a US legislature, but they can certainly put more pressure on the US to hurry up," Pamaran said. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had earlier ordered the Philippine Veterans' Affairs Office (PVAO) in Manila to set up processing centers in various provinces in the country where there is a “high concentration of Filipino war veterans." But since the remaining WWII vets are on their 80s, the mortality rate of the claimants continue to rise. Since the year began, 1,257 Filipino WWII veterans have died of old age. A total of 687 veterans died in January of this year, based on the PVAO tally. Another 570 died last month. According to Pamaran, when the US forces made the list in Missouri of soldiers who served under the American flag in the late 1940s, about 230,000 signed up. "Now barely 20,000 survived," he said. Some Filipinos who were part of the guerrilla movement in the Philippines also failed to be included in the list and are thus ineligible for any US pension, Pamaran added. "There are only 18,000 listed Filipino war veterans. Six thousands are in the US, while 12,000 are in the Philippines," he said. PVAO began processing the application of Filipino World War II veterans eligible for the $15,000 (for US citizens) and $9,000 (for enlisted Filipinos) US benefits package shortly after US President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, of which the pension was tucked. While Filipino veterans were able to register during the first leg of the application rounds in Quezon City, Cebu, Davao and other provinces from Feb. 19 to 27, some claimants have already died even before getting hold of the lump sum benefits. Such was the case of Napoleon Adeva, a Filipino WWII veteran from Taguig, who succumbed to old age on Saturday, several days after he filed for the $9,000 lump sum benefits from the US government. He was 87. His wife will be able to receive the $9,000 from the US government once they start handing out the benefits later this year. But other veterans who have no surviving spouses would no longer get any money. (Click here for additional information) Until the US government begins giving out the delayed benefits, Dioscoro Valmasen, a war veteran in the Philippines, is trying to stay alive to enjoy it. "I slipped my disc when I was bowling one day," Valmasen told GMA News, “They told me to take care of my health since I might not live long enough to enjoy the benefits." The more than 35,000 surviving WWII Filipino veterans whose average age is 80, have been waiting for the last 62 years for the US government to correct the Recession Acts’ "injustice" and provide them compensation equal to that of their American counterparts. - GMANews.TV