Media Advisory

Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)

Contact Person: Arturo P. Garcia

Phone- (213) 241-0906

October 27, 2009

JFAV SCORES DVA DELAYS AND SLOW-PROCESSING; REITERATES CLAIMS DELAYED, JUSTICE DENIED!

Los Angeles—“ Claims Delayed, Justice Denied!

The Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV), an alliance of veterans, widows, students and youth and community advocates in the United States based in Los Angeles again raised it voice against the insidious and unfair propaganda of the DVA against the Filipino World War II Veterans.

It is the fault of the DVA that they only projected 18,000 veterans to be filing pension claims under the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Fund, and now nearly double that number -- or 32,795 applied?

The JFAV scores the malicious insinuations of the DVA that “ This could indicate, according to analysts, that there may be spurious or incomplete claims being filed, or that some veterans may be submitting duplicate claims. “ JFAV bewail the fact they use this reason to say “these could be slowing down the application process.

As early as 2002, JFAV has stood with the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) that were at least 70,000 still living Filipino veterans in the Philippines. But the DVA bulldozed their claims that there are only 18,000 veterans both in the US and the Philippines. Who now is telling the truth? Why are they surprised with the number of claims?

The problem with the DVA they do not want to give the benefits to the veterans in the first place. Now, they are again concocting racist remarks against the veterans to cover their incompetence.” The JFAV stated.

Preposterous DVA Claim

The JFAV does not agree with the DVA claim that “Of 32,795 claims received, a total of 7,985 have been granted to 4,149 Philippine-based veterans and 3,836 U.S.-based veterans or about 25 percent. ” If this is true, why are there so many veterans grumbling that they have not received their claims.?

Another DVA apologist Sonny Sampayan said "Well it is. Unfortunately it is how the VA has set up the process. Based on what we were told, you cannot have Manila process a number of claims and then have Washington DC process another number of claims because they have only one set of records. The way it is worked Manila has the documentation so therefore it makes sense that there is only one central office to do all the claims."

The JFAV said the tacit admission of the DVA that the Manila-US connection or “ pass the back buck” system is what slow down the process is the real reason of the slowdown. The JFAV also scored the fact that the DVA did not add needed employees in their Manila office. Their statement that their added new 18 employees is not true and is just a media release.

JFAV Sets Mass action Against DVA Delays on Nov. 11, 2009“

In the face of the DVA delays, Arturo P. Garcia, JFAV National coordinator and AWARE secretary said: “ We call on all veterans, widows and fellow advocates to reiterate on this day that our struggle is not finished. Claims delayed is justice denied. We must struggle for equality, our rights and our benefits

Therefore, we will mobilize for a Veterans Day protest march on November 11, 2009 and the Historic Filipino Town Health Fair on Nov, 14 at SIPA and fight for the full pension for the veterans and benefits for our widows.” Garcia ended.

The DVA also reported that of the “32,795 total claims received, 2,776 have been denied, leaving 22,034 claims still pending. Deadline for applications is February 16, 2010.”

For more information please call Arturo P. Garcia at (213) 241-0906