CHICAGO – One of the oldest surviving Filipino American World War II veterans received the first lump sum from the US Department of Veterans Affairs at a reception held Wednesday (April
night at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Alberto Bacani, 98, of Alexandria, Virginia, got his $15,000 check from former US Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, representing the Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, according to the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, Inc., a national advocacy group.
Earlier, at 5:30 p.m., General Taguba and Philippine Ambassador Willy Gaa led Filipino veterans and their supporters in the laying of wreath at the National WWII Memorial on 17th St. and Independence Ave SW, in Washington, D.C.
They honored the 67th anniversary of the Fall of Bataan when about 10,000 American and 60,000 Filipino soldiers surrendered after three months of defending the Philippines, which was a US territory, and began the 55-mile "Death March" to Capas in Tarlc and other prison camps in April 1942.
The VA one-time payment of $15,000 is given to each of the surviving former Filipino soldiers, who are US citizens. This is authorized as part of the stimulus budget in the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on February 17.
The Filipino veterans, who are not US citizens, get a lump-sum pay of $9,000 each.
The "Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund" in the Public Law 111-5 Title X, Sec. 1002 restores the honorable "active service" designation of former Filipino soldiers who were stripped of their US veterans' status by an act of Congress in 1946.
About 250,000 Filipino soldiers fought under American command from 1941-46.
Less than 18,000 Filipino veterans are now surviving and would be eligible for the VA compensation benefit.
Soldier, teacher and librarian
Bacani is a retired Philippine Army major. He was born in Isabela province in the northern Philippines. He was a prisoner-of-war for ten days after the Fall of Corregidor, the island guarding the mouth of Manila Bay. [It was in Corregidor where Gen. Douglas MacArthur ran the resistance against Japanese invaders during the first months of the war. ]
Bacani retired as a teacher in 1976 and as registrar of the University of the East in the Philippines.
In the US, Bacani retired in 2008 as a librarian and as a federal employee in the Environmental Protection Agency in Crystal City, Virginia.
He has said his secret for long life is to “live one day at a time."
Meanwhile, Consul General Blesila C. Cabrera led the wreath-laying at the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge at the corner of State St. and Wacker Drive in Downtown Chicago Monday (April 6) at the 67th commemoration of the Fall of Bataan.
After the wreath laying, the veterans and friends, Consulate officers, and leaders of the Fil-Am community, marched to the Philippine Consulate General to hold the rest of the program. - GMANews.TV
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