By Steve Angeles, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
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Los Angeles, CA – During a meeting with the Filipino community Filipino World War 2 veterans presented Los Angeles Democratic Congressman Xavier Becerra with a memorandum, demanding that he call for a congressional hearing on the denied lump sum payments.

They want the U.S. Congressional Veterans Affairs Committee to order the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Philippines to find other ways to verify the service of Filipino World War 2 veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs in the Philippines has been in charge of giving out the lump sum payments. Franco Arcebal, the Vice President American Coalition for Filipino Veterans said: “It is our hope that congressman Filner of the Committee of Veterans Affairs in lower house will conduct a hearing and will ask The department of veterans affairs to report himself to the committee on how they administered the provisions of the law and there maybe we can request the secretary to issue a new directive.”

They are also asking Becerra to rally congressional support for House Bill 2412, the stand alone Veterans Family Reunification Bill. This bill would speed up family petitions for the veterans.

It would exempt the sons and daughters of Filipino Worl War 2 veterans from visa quotas. Their goal is to have it passed before this U.S. Congress goes on break.

Arcebal explained, “It has not been moving in Congress it was not included in the agenda in the committee of judiciary, so I requested him to please put some effort in including this bill.”

Becerra told the community that he will continue to fully support the veterans, by working with the veterans themselves as well as other advocates in congress. “I hope we can make progress because time is short for many of these veterans and they should be able to live knowing the United States of America righted a wrong an d recognize the value of what these veterans were willing to do,” said the Los Angeles Congressman.

About 9,000 Filipino Veterans have been denied their lump sum compensation because their names do not appear on the Missouri list, records used to keep track of World War 2 soldiers. Some of the records were destroyed in a fire, while some veterans did not put their name on the list out of fear of retaliation from the Japanese.

Other veteran groups are in the process of suing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, asking them to find alternate ways of verifying veterans services. Arcebal says the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans are not planning to join any of the lawsuits.

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