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By Associated Press
Published February 10, 2010
WAIPAHU, Hawaii—Gaudencio Sotio injured his left leg fighting to expel the Japanese military from the Philippines during World War II. Though Filipino, he was fighting under the command of the United States, which had colonized his homeland in the late 1800s.
Last February, the U.S. said it would pay a lump sum — $9,000 or $15,000 — to veterans like Sotio in lieu of pensions it had promised Filipino soldiers during the war but reneged on paying.
Since then, more than 11,000 surviving veterans now in their 80s and 90s received this much delayed monetary recognition of their service and sacrifice. But thousands of others are still waiting to receive their money as the federal government wades through a backlog of applications.
This bureaucracy moved too slowly for Sotio, who died Jan. 10. The 84-year-old applied for his benefits on Feb. 20 — just days after the law authorizing the funds went into effect. His death came before the Department of Veterans Affairs was able to rule on his claim.
“My husband said, ‘If the others are receiving, maybe I'm going to receive too,’” said Norma Sotio, his widow. “It's one year already. If my husband received that money maybe he enjoy.”
Part of the problem is that 40,000 people applied for the benefit when the VA had been expecting only half that number.
To cope, the VA added seven additional claims processors to its Manila field office.
The National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, which has over a century of documents for military servicemen and women, has also increased its staff to deal with the claims, and is now handling 800 lump sum payment queries a week, or twice as many as when the program started.
The VA expects these changes will allow it to plow through the existing application pile.
“We are committed to delivering these benefits in a compassionate and timely manner,” said Willie Clark, the Western area director for the field operations office.
Ineligible applications may be slowing claims processing. The department has so far had to deny nearly 8,000 claims, mostly from people who hadn't served. Some were from veteran widows, children and other next of kin who aren't eligible. Some people filed more than one application. Some 16,000 claims are still being reviewed. The VA has distributed $136 million, or over two-thirds of the money, to date. It's prepared to ask lawmakers for additional funds if it appears it will exhaust the allocated amount. Veterans have until Feb. 16 to file.
More than 250,000 Filipinos served alongside U.S. soldiers to defend the Philippines from the 1941 Japanese invasion. The U.S. military assured Filipinos they would be able to apply for U.S. citizenship and qualify for full U.S. veterans' benefits if they served. But one year after Japan's surrender, the Rescission Act of 1946 declared that Filipinos were not in active service for the U.S. military during the war.
This stripped Filipinos of their status as U.S. veterans and denied them the benefits they were promised.
The waiting has frustrated veterans who have already spent most of their lives pushing the government to fulfill its promises.
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