BALITANG BETERANO: ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FIL-AM VETS
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, July 23, 2004 (By Col.(Ret) Frank B. Quesada, Former Senate Committee Secretary-Veterans and Military Pensions, Associate, PMA ‘44) A lot of issues has been raised both in arguments before the U.S. Courts and in the U.S Congress pertinent to the long-drawn battle for full equity payment of Filipino-American World War II veterans benefits to no avail.One significant issue which has not yet been raised as part of the valid argument of veterans is economic discrimination. And we are guided what was said in the scripture to wit:, “The first man born on this world believed strongly in justice and fairness, .but the second man was an avid racist.”
A lot of other issues such as political, social and racial discrimination – but the valid and strong issue of economic discrimination has yet to be brought out to make the U.S. government aware of its oversight, if not outright truculence perpetrated to evade payment of due compensation, and grant of wartime earned veterans benefits – for the past 50 years of truculence.
This unfortunate oversight, if not a subterfuge appears as an artifice to retard payment of U.S. obligation to the Filipino-American World War II veterans, or simply to ignore the obligation – was a result of the passage of the infamous Rescission Act of 1946 by the 79th Congress.
Meantime, out of the 200,000 original Fil-Am veterans recruited by Pres. F. Roosevelt in 1941, only approx. 30,000 survivors are wallowing in poverty, wrestling against the scourge of disease in the Philippines, while their comrade in the U.S mainland enjoy their benefits like any member of the U.S. Army. This is discrimination.
Eight thousand miles across the Pacific, those heroes of Bataan. Corregidor and the Philippine Campaign (1941 t0 1946) are dying by the hundreds each day sans relief and felt cheated by the U.S..in their peaceful quest for justice and fairness?
Upon seeing and realizing that the U.S owed no less than $3.2 Billion dollars worth of benefits and compensation to the Fil-Am, war veterans, the U.S. congress had ruthlessly precluded veterans under the notorious Rescission Act of 1946.
Up until now, since 1946, the U.S. government have failed to settle all said huge constitutional obligation. Over sixty years now under this outstanding obligation stares squarely on every face of U.S. presidents and members of a recreant Congress that were parties to the cruel hoax of retarding and/or avoiding full settlement of the $3.2 billion constitutional debt ( their wartime compensation and benefits) owed to the Filipino-American World War II veterans for their active and honorable military service.
These indentured veterans were victims of deceit and double talk which is abhorred by the American citizen-taxpayer. The government became an expert in weaving a tangled web since time it first defrauded and took advantage of the credulity of veterans. The government has ran out of excuses, alibis and its credibility for the last over 60 years of dodging payment of its huge outstanding debt.
It is clearly an act of escape innovation by the government, viewed by veterans worldover upon seeing that the US. government have fully compensated some 66,000 veteran nations of 16 allied nations that also fought for the U.S. flag, but in contrast has denied full payment to Filipino WW-II veterans. What has Fil-Am veterans done to deserve such shabby and truculent treatment?
In his radio chat in May 1940, I noted the statement of Pres. F. Roosevelt, and I quote:
“The American people will not relish the idea of any American citizen growing rich and fat in the emergency of blood and slaughter and human suffering.”
No sooner after his demise –and now, it is the opposite under the experience of failures and trial, while powerful elites as public servants took hold and retained arrogance of power, then appointed themselves as masters of people in nation of sheep.
This issue of economic discrimination flies on the face of the U.S government (both in Congress and Administrative departments) which could not be taken lightly or ignored because of the serious complication caused by avoidance to human rights and due process with impunity. It is no less a crime against humanity.
Fil-Am veterans have pointed to the Court and quoted the decision of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy in the case of Steele versus N.R Company, 323 U.S. 192 (1944), to wit:
“Economic discrimination practiced under the color of congressional authority raises a grave constitutional issue that should be squarely faced. Utter disregard for the dignity and well-being of colored citizens shown by the record is so pronounced as to the demand invocation of constitutional condemnation.
“The cloak of racism surrounding the actions…..in refusing and entering into an enforcement is discriminating against them, under all the disguise of congressional authority still remains. No statutory interpretation can erase the ugly sample of economic cruelty, the accident of birth has been used as the basis to abuse individual rights by an organization purporting to act in conformity with the congressional mandate. Any attempt to interpret an Act must take into account and must realize that the constitutionality of the statute in this respect depends upon the answer given.
“The constitution voices its disapproval whether economic discrimination is applied under authority of the law against race, creed or color. A sound democracy cannot allow such discrimination to go unchallenged. Racism is far too virulent today to permit the slightest refusal, in the light of the constitution that abhors it, to expose and condemn it wherever it appears in the course of a statutory interpretation.”
The U.S. can not just insolvently abdicate its constitutional responsibility and merely allow these intrepid Fil-Am members of the U.S. Armed Forces who were sent to harm’s way, and die bereft of their rightful compensation and benefits earned in battles of World War II in the Philippines. Pres. F. Roosevelt’s military order of July 26, 1941 conscripting Filipinos into the U.S. Army is a valid contract between The U.S. and the Filipino servicemen. Let there be no mistake about that !
For if the government continues to deny and evade settlement, the Filipino U.S servicemen therefore, were made to fight America’s war under “involuntary servitude” – no less as slaves strictly prohibited and abhorred by the U.S Constitution.
These intrepid heroes of Bataan, Corregidor and Philippine Campaign (1941 to 1946) were legally involved by the U.S, no less than President F. Roosevelt, as the Commander-in-Chief, who conscripted them and incorporated all organized Commonwealth military forces into the United States Army in the Far East (USAFFE) in 1941.It is an official act by a Head of State which can not be ignored by Congress acting as a separate republic.
As a matter of fact, the U.S.. Supreme Court handed the following decision in Insular cases, to wit:
“The Philippines was not a foreign territory within the meaning of the U.S Constitution, and the Commonwealth of the Philippines was under the sovereignty of the United States. The United States legally involved the Philippines in a war of the United States against Japan, likewise dictated the political and military strategy of the conflict.”
Why and how can the U.S administrations and Congresses sweep this issue under rug, and ignore its constitutional responsibility and obligation to the Fil-Am U.S servicemen who shed blood and died for the U.S. becomes a deliberate act of evasion. If this is not discrimination and a criminal act against humanity – what is?
The U.S. full. payment of the 66,000 nationals of 16 foreign allies who also fought for the U.S. flag – while denying full payment to the Filipino U.S members of the U.S Army is no less - anti-veteran, un-American and plain absurd and tomfoolery. The money that already belonged to these veterans is available, but has been withheld and/or hoarded as “pork,.” for their own use.
More than once to the nation comes the moment to decide under contention of either the truth, justice or deceit – has been over-ridden by immorality and cupidity.
Filipino-American servicemen, if the truth must be told - did not set foot in the shores of the U.S as slaves, and did not arrive in chains in slave ships. They came under promise of government of citizenship to claim their rightful compensation and benefits like any member of the U.S Armed Forces. They were free men with honor and dignity entitled to equality not under difference in treatment as a social class.
I am hereby quoting another prime decisionof the U.s Supreme Court which can not also be ignored or taken for granted, by the President and Congress , to wit:
“Equity is rooted in conscience and equal protection of laws not achieved through indiscriminate imposition of inequalities. Historical text of the U.S 14th Constitutional Amendment became partmof the U..S. constitution should not be forgotten
“It is clear that the matter of primacy concern was establishment of equality in the enjoyment of basic civil and political rights and the preservation of those rights from discriminatory action on the part of the State based on the consideration of race and color.” (see: US S/Ct. 442 and Fr. P.Entines versus U.S.)
Slavery has ceased since it was declared inhuman and a bane to U.S. society but its ugly head today perpetuated by camouflaged slaveholders that have acquired borrowed power from the citizens-taxpayers and have turned this nation into a disguised autocracy of revilement.”
Let these treatise be part of the lessons we learn from the reality of Philippine-American relations. Filipinos can no longer linger as a docile and misled, its leaders led through the nose by imperial manipulators which held the tiger by the tail.
My fellow (kabayans) cavaliers –thus have to wake up and never miss the clues or drop the ball. No nation or race can prosper until it has learned to shed indolence, and that - there is as much honor and dignity in being poor but upright - than being rich from ill-gotten fat.
There is nothing wrong in what the precious Academy taught through the guiding maxim: Courage, Integrity and Loyalty.
We can never find any justification in any language of any constitution for a change as a long as the citizen’s demand is not met. And as long as we permit ourselves to be a peon of contemporary foreigners of posterity.
Allow me to paraphrase and modify our alumni association saying: “From the grassy plains of Polo Fields to the hilly terrain of Camp Allen, in the valley of Teacher’s Camp, then to the virgin land of Loakan,” now the hallowed ground currently as Fort Del Pilar – in the blood-soaked battlefields of Bataan and in the humid laterals of Corregidor, in the mountain vastness of the Sierras, among freedom-loving Filipinos: cavaliers refused to accept defeat held out as guerrillas, brought back freedom and democracy that was taught and wrought in the furnace of the Academy - that stands as a beacon of hope for the youths of the Fatherland.
Let the Kayumanging Pilipino stand erect before God and country, never frightened, never beaten and tortured, never enslaved by any intruder, or who intervene in the affairs of State. Defend the nation in her intercourse with foreigners in always being right, not forgetting the Most High who values a human life. The nation’s homeland security is never compromised with caprices or wishes by another impertinent country that has no God, who cries for blood of our countrymen, like Angelo dela Cruz - or those who try to corrupt our Leaders. Isang Bansa –Isang Diwa. (One nation –One Spirit).
Let our own stout-hearted men marching along, fifty score strong – great gentlemen officers singing the Academy song… leading men to victory. To them, there’s nothing except a battle lost, that could be as melancholy as a battle won. Vae victis (woe to the vanquished). Adopted and modified from dispatch, 1815,
Let it be with us always the somber thought that war is not all glory. For us veterans - it’s all hell. The down-trodden and destitute rode towards the jaws of death, and into the mouth of hell. For the cheated, death was man’s best friend
Albeit, the slaveholder and corrupt tax collector live forever in hell and cannot die. It is the kingdom of Satan, where he would rather reign in Hell - than serve in Heaven..
Always remember – that Christ died on the Cross between the slaveholder and the tax collector. Neither one were able to bribe St. Peter for a pass to Paradise. # #
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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