Pinoy war vets get US congressional award

WASHINGTON – They smiled, laughed and cried as the Philippine and US national anthems played for them. Some, though bent over, stood tall, their chests swelling with pride.

It was an emotional ceremony at the US Capitol on Wednesday as Filipino World War II veterans, after a 75-year struggle for US recognition of their wartime service, were finally presented the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor the US Congress can bestow.

Among those who honored the veterans in an hour-long ceremony replete with a US Army color guard and a military band were senior Republican and Democratic leaders, a rare show of comity in highly polarized Washington. 

They included House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who all hailed the veterans for their valor and courage and for persevering all these years to get their just rewards.

About 20 veterans and their families were present at the ceremony including Celestino Almeda, possibly the oldest living survivor.

“I am Celestino Almeda, a 100-year-old veteran of World War II … I am a warrior,” he told America’s representatives in a stirring speech which drew a rousing ovation. 

In an interview with The STAR on the eve of the award ceremony at the Emancipation Hall of the US Capitol, Almeda of Gaithersburg, Maryland, said he was honored  to be one of three veterans selected to receive the medal on behalf of all his comrades.

At the same time, he was sad because he and many other veterans had not yet received the one-time lump sum payments for their wartime service because of bureaucratic snafus. 

He did not know a surprise awaited him.

At the very end of the ceremony, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin announced he had pulled all stops to make it possible for Almeda to receive the $15,000 rightfully due him. 

Eric Lachica, executive director of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, estimates there are some 4,000 veterans still fighting to be included in the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Act of 2009 under which those who migrated to the US and became American citizens were given a one-time lump sum payment of $15,000 and those who remained in the Philippines received $9,000.

This group of veterans cannot be paid because of discrepancies in names listed in the official 1948 recognized guerrilla roster of the US Army and records at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Some of them are listed under their proper names, others under their nom de guerre or nicknames. A misspelling here, a wrong date there or a missing document out of scores needed are enough to cause problems.

The Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act awards a single medal collectively to the over 250,000 Filipino and Filipino-American soldiers who responded to President Roosevelt’s call-to-duty and fought under the American flag during World War II.

The gold medal will be given to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and made available for display and research.

Filipino WWII veterans will receive duplicates of the gold medal in bronze.

There are too many people to name who over the years worked for and on behalf of the veterans, but the long list must surely include retired US Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, whose father was a Filipino veteran.

Taguba became famous for investigating the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses by US military forces in Iraq and after his retirement went on to spearhead the gold medal campaign.