Filipino Veterans Chain Selves to Statue
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A number of Filipino war veterans are angry at not getting their due.
So on Saturday, about 40 of them--some wearing Army uniforms more than 50 years old--chained themselves to a statue of the general under whom they served in World War II, Douglas MacArthur, demanding that the United States give them the full veterans benefits they say President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised them during the war.
“These guys are getting only about a third of the benefits given to the same [U.S.] soldiers they fought with,” said Joel Bander, a spokesman for the Southern California Coordinating Council of Filipino American War Veterans, which organized the demonstration in MacArthur Park.
The veterans, all natives of the Philippines now in their late 70s or early 80s, said they were taking the action to urge a congressional hearing on the Equity Act, a bill to assure equal benefits for all veterans, whether naturalized or native-born citizens.
The former soldiers, most of them now U.S. citizens and all Southland residents, said they intended to spend Saturday night in the park and possibly tonight as well.
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