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| Filipino WWII Vets Win Pension Vote April 25, 2008 Virginian-Pilot WASHINGTON -- An aging band of Filipino warriors, critical American allies in the struggle to liberate the Pacific more than 60 years ago, won a final battle Thursday in the U.S. Senate. After a dispute that for months delayed action on a far larger package of enhanced benefits for younger U.S. veterans, senators voted to provide a $300-per-month pension to some 15,000 Filipinos. The monthly payment is about one-third the amount available to low-income veterans older than 65 in the United States. It would cost American taxpayers an estimated $221 million. Supporters say the payments are America's moral obligation to long-neglected allies. Critics charge that the money will make recipients among the richest people in the Philippines and should instead be spent on Americans fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This is a burden that should have been borne long before," said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who at 85 is one of five World War II veterans in the Senate; all five, including Virginia Republican John Warner, backed the Filipino veterans on Thursday. The choice, retorted Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., is "between our veterans and their veterans. ... You can't fund everything. You have to prioritize." The fight to secure the pension has galvanized Filipino Americans, hundreds of whom have made repeated trips to Washington over the past year to plead the veterans' case. "It's very important for us, for me and the (Filipino) community, to be able to see that the United States looked back and did their part, what they're supposed to do ... to give these aging veterans their rightful benefit," said Romy San Antonio, a Norfolk resident who heads a local group of Filipino veterans. San Antonio, whose father died in fighting on Bataan, has no personal stake in the new pension plan. Now 66, he came to the United States after the war, became an aviation machinist's mate in the Navy and retired in 1982 as a chief petty officer. The Bush administration has expressed reservations about the pension plan, though supporters suggest its inclusion in a larger package of veterans benefits will make it hard to stop in the House or at the president's desk. After a bid to kill the pension provisions failed 56-41 on Thursday, the overall bill cleared the Senate on a 96-1 vote. The pension would be paid to Filipinos with no service-related injury or disability and still residing in the Philippines. Thousands of other Filipino troops who came to the United States after the war already are eligible for aid provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Burr argued Thursday that the payments, added to the $120 per month that Filipino veterans already receive from their own government, would give recipients an annual income equal to 1,400 percent of the poverty level in the Philippines. The maximum pension available to U.S. vets is barely 10 percent above the U.S. poverty line, he said. But Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam-era veteran, called the payments "an equitable solution." The Philippines' status as a U.S. commonwealth during the war created "a series of obligations for our government," he said . In addition to the Filipino pensions, the bill passed Thursday would create a new life-insurance program for disabled veterans younger than 65, with up to $50,000 in coverage available at low rates. The bill also would provide special housing assistance to veterans who have suffered severe burn injuries, increase the limit on mortgage insurance veterans may buy through the VA's Veterans Mortgage Life Insurance program, and provide additional aid to cover the burial expenses of disabled veterans. |