MEDIA RELEASE

Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)

March 27, 2009

More than 900 Veterans Have Applied for Lump Sum in Los Angeles

Los Angeles- The Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV) reported today than more than 900 World War II veterans in Los Angeles area have applied for their claims for benefits to the veterans Administration..

This was learned by JFAV through its senior coordinator Faustino Baclig who is helping processing claims. The JFAV have not monitored the number of veterans who filed their claims directly to the Veterans Administration office.

Three non profit organizations all based in Los Angles are helping in the processing of veterans claims. They are the People’s CORE, Filipino American Community of Los Angeles (FACLA) and Filipino American Service Group Inc. (FASGI).

Around 23,000 veterans had applied for claims under the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act since last month. The Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) based in manila, Philippines and its regional offices has processed 21,000 applicants in February.

The JFAV is expecting a lot of applications to be filed until Feb 16, 2010. This is due to the fact that PVAO admitted that there are 40,000 still living veterans in the Philippines. There are around 6,000 veterans living in the United States.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs will pay around US 8 million to about 18,000 veterans who will each receive a one-time payment of ,000 for non-citizens and ,000 for US citizens. US Ambassador Kristy Kenney said they expected more applications to come in.

The JFAV is anticipating problems about the matter with a large number of applicants both in the Philippines and the United States. There are more than 46,000 veterans who are expected to apply for claims. The money allotted for the veterans is only for 18,000 veterans.