SAN DIEGO AND WASHINGTON — For more than 60 years, Cenon Antonio has waited for the payment promised by the U.S. government for fighting the Japanese after they conquered the Philippines early in World War II.
When the war was over, the United States reneged on its commitment to Antonio and other Filipino veterans, leaving what one U.S. senator calls a stain on the nation's honor.
"When America was down, we Filipinos stood up and fought beside America, but when peacetime came, the Americans were stingy," said Antonio, 82, who lives in San Diego.
Antonio said he still has nightmares of barely escaping capture by the Japanese, who tortured and killed prisoners. When Congress reneged in 1946 on the pledge to Filipinos, "it was like getting hit below the belt," he said.
Now, Antonio and other surviving Filipino veterans, many of whom live in Southern California, will get their long-overdue payment under a provision in the stimulus bill signed Tuesday by President Obama.
The bill authorizes a $198-million payout. Each Filipino veteran who became a U.S. citizen is eligible for $15,000; each noncitizen, $9,000.
It is a bittersweet victory -- sweet because it represents a recognition of the bravery and sacrifice of the Filipinos; bitter because many veterans, including Antonio, think the payment is inadequate.
Antonio, a retired colonel in the Philippine army, said he remembers attacking Japanese patrols armed only with a knife, hiding Americans and bringing them food and medicine, rallying behind Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he returned and fighting beside the Americans in some of the war's bloodiest combat.
"This payment is not nearly enough to compensate for what we did," Antonio said.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Ed Ramsey, who escaped the Bataan Death March and organized Filipino guerrilla forces, agrees.
"It's just a way to end it all, to make sure there are no more claims," said Ramsey, 91, who lives in Los Angeles.
The bill represents a compromise between legislators who insisted that the payments were long overdue and others, particularly some Republicans in the House, who wanted no payments at all to be made while programs for U.S. veterans are still not adequately funded. The Filipino veterans had hoped for monthly pensions and survivor benefits.
"This is not really what we wanted, but I've told the veterans that we have to be realistic," said Romeo Monteyro, 74, a retired colonel in the Philippine army who lives in Arizona and was part of the lobbying effort.
