by Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)
Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 1:12 PM
jfav_us@yahoo.com 213-241-0906 337 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
We wrote this letter as a rejoinder to the steady stream of propaganda from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and ever willing Philippine government functionaries led by Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro and his lackeys namely PVAO retired General Ernesto Carolina and their paid hacks.
But the glaring fact it is more than six months now when the Stimulus Bill was passed and only less than 3,000 Filipino veterans in the United States have received their checks. We want to know what keeping the claims so slow.
The United States is deliberately using the claims as a propaganda tool to make the Filipino people accept their Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the proposed changes in the 1987 constitution that will give them 100% ownership of Philippine lands and corporations.
1.jpg, image/jpeg, 640x480
Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)
Los Angeles, CA
Contact Person: Arturo P. Garcia
Phone- (213) 241-0995
September 23, 2009
Dear Editor,
We wrote this letter as a rejoinder to the steady stream of propaganda from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and ever willing Philippine government functionaries led by Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro and his lackeys namely PVAO retired General Ernesto Carolina and their paid hacks.
But the glaring fact it is more than six months now when the Stimulus Bill was passed and only less than 3,000 Filipino veterans in the United States have received their checks. We want to know what keeping the claims so slow.
The United States is deliberately using the claims as a propaganda tool to make the Filipino people accept their Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the proposed changes in the 1987 constitution that will give them 100% ownership of Philippine lands and
corporations.
In the process they focused more on the Philippines than in the United States leaving our aging and dying veterans behind.
Let us grant that the DVA has granted 6,00 claims as they claimed until September. This is just merely less than 20% of the 35,000 claims that still keeps growing. And good Lord, the PVAO has estimated more than 20,000 will be filed before the deadline on February 16, 2010.
Therefore, we are afraid and have to tell the veterans and their dependents that the claims will take another 18 months at most to be all be paid to tall of them.
DVA Admission
The DVA through a letter to JFAV dated Sept. 4, 2009 sent by David Spivey, Office of the Communications and Case Management of the Veterans benefits Administration based in Washington admitted that:
“ There are… 22,800 claims for FVEC currently pending an entitlement decision. However since each claim must be decided on its own merits and the need for supporting evidence varies, the actual resolution of each complaint is not always in order it was received.” ( underscoring ours)
Although we are glad that the DVA also assured JFAV that the Manila Regional office (RO) has hired an additional 15 employees to expedite the claims. It was a tacit admission that there was a lag in the processing due to the lack in personnel in the Manila RO at the US Embassy.
We have to accept the hard truth that in this world, where the racist all over the United States are escalating their attacks against health care, against President Obama and the immigrants, racism is the harsh reality.
That even the hush money- the FVEC for a small compensation for the World War II veterans in the Philippines and the United States will be delayed and it will be a long wait for them to get their claims.
So the reality that claims delayed is justice denied is the sad truth after all.
Arturo P. Garcia
JFAV National Coordinator
