Government urged to pay attention to needs of war veterans

A veteran of the Second World War and the resistance movement in Cebu urged the government to release his and his compatriots’ monthly allowance amounting to P1,700.

Col. Manuel Segura, World War II veteran, called on the government to pay attention to the needs of the veterans.

He said that some provisions of Republic Act 7696, otherwise known as an Act Standardizing and Upgrading the Benefits of Military Veterans and their Dependents, are not properly implemented.

The Act is also supposed to give the veteran’s wives their P500 monthly benefit.

He emphasized that there were 200,000 guerrillas at the start of the war. Now, there are only about 14,000 veterans and there will only be around 5,000 veterans at the end of Arroyo’s administration, so that it’s high time for the government to attend to this concern and let the veterans enjoy the benefits due them.

Segura was invited to the city government’s commemoration of the Araw ng Kagitingan (National Heroes Day) yesterday along with officials of Guadalupe led by barangay captain Eugenio Faelnar at the Guadalupe church grounds.

The celebration opened with a Holy Mass, followed by the offering of flowers on a spot where names of war heroes were inscribed, and the gun salute for those who perished in the war. – Junel Joe Gato/MEEV