JFAV UPDATE
April 06, 2012
Open Letter to General Delfin Lorenzana, OVA.
Subject: Position on the Denied Veterans
Dear General,
I have been informed by the JFAV in San Francisco the following concerning the WW ll Filipino Vets again today. The Embassy is only supporting appeals that were filed and not all the 24,000 that did not file appeals, after filing claims. I was quite surprised to hear this since the VA and NPRC have made it clear they will not accept any Philippine documents as proof of service and nothing has been reviewed with western leaders as to an agreement for all that have been denied.
If it is true I would like to request a SUMMIT of the western states leadership area concerning this decision since all the input appears to have come from DC based sources to develop this policy and no request for input was asked or even put forth to get suggestions from the Filipino-American Veterans of America & Families who are fighting for denied veterans here in this state and California.
I would hope this could be done as an outreach project for the Embassy before President Aquino comes to United States. This will cause a great deal of further non positive results if communication does not expand soon as Congress is reviewing possible hearings on the Filipino Compensation Fund and why the Philippine documents are not accepted by the VA or NPRC. This is really the core of this problem and than there is HR 210 which is gaining conservative supporters in the Congress for passage to have all Filipino Veterans from WW ll recognized that are still alive. It is expected soon a Senator who has not been active in this issue before will introduce the bill in the Senate since the Senator from Hawaii we hear appears to not want to continue to be involved any longer, but will not oppose introduction by another author. It appears the other political party is very interested in helping the Filipino veteran and view this as a tragedy how the fund claims have been handled? There is more support in Congress going on than others may know as I have seen.
I mean not to criticize,only to ask, but do you not think the states with the largest amount of Filipinos that are affected should have some say in this decision? let alone the poor families in the Philippines who did not understand what appears to be a mismanaged claim process for vets who had no funds to put a stamp on a letter or go to Manila to fight to be recognized for service to America. VA Director Skelly even has a video on the internet that told all these elderly veterans they needed no documents and turned around and placed them into an appeal process because they did not understand how this worked. It seems the PAVO would be asking for these Philippine Veterans documents to be accepted and fighting for the vets and through your sources consider that as opposed to picking a number of appeals and forgetting the other 24,000 who were denied and did not file appeal claims, but did file the one form claim that Director Skelly told them it was all they needed.
As you know the USA will not recognize Philippine documents that come from the AGO. When we appear before the committee it will asked that the filing date be reopened so all can be recognized and proper management of this claim process be put in place, which would include recognizing Philippine documents that each veteran can obtain as evidence of service from the Philippine Military archives. I hope you do not oppose that thought. I do not see how we can abandon so many of these elderly Filipinos who played a part in keeping America a free country and we need to have recognized. If ever the Philippine Government had a chance to help rescind the Act that has caused this issue-Title 38 errors and settle this matter once and for all it it now.
I appeal to you to come visit us in the west for a Summit of Filipino leaders on the subject of our Filipino veterans. I will take you to meet one of the oldest living ones in the United States who is denied, lives here and is 100 years old. I will take you to visit one of the Philippine Brig. Generals who who was Chief of Staff of the Military Camp in Cebu who is a denied veteran and lives here. The 100 year old has been fighting this process with the VA for over 15 years and served with the famous Col. Ramsey who was one of MacArthur's Commanders and still alive in Los Angeles who will verify he fought for America. He has so many documents proving his service and just because he is not on the NPRC list they continue to fight him. We would be glad to host the meeting in Las Vegas and help you open the doors to better communication on this. If this position is not true we would like to know and work with you more closely.
Thank you for any comment you can give me on this in a timely manner. I have several meetings next week where this will be covered by the press and with leaders working on this issue. I would like to report you are interested in coming west to present to us your plans in this matter on behalf of the Embassy.
Regards,
Luke Perry
702-434-7449
lplasvegas@hotmail.com 