(Following is the transcript of the segment "Analysis by Winnie Monsod" which aired on News on Q on Feb. 21, 2009. Prof. Winnie Monsod is the resident analyst of News on Q, which airs weeknights at 9:30 p.m. on Q Channel 11.)

Finally, after 63 years of waiting, the services of Filipino veterans who were conscripted by United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to serve in the U.S. Army in 1941, are going to be recognized by the U.S. government.

As part of the U.S. Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, $198 million has been allocated to give these veterans, whose average age is 85 years old, a one-time payment of $15,000 if they are U.S. citizens, and $9000 if they are not... MEANING NON-US CITIZENS WILL GET ONLY 60% OF WHAT U.S. CITIZENS WOULD BE GETTING.

ALSO, to benefit from this bill, you have to be alive, and you better die very soon, because it is only a one-time payment.

That is just the latest indignity in the mountain of indignities that have been heaped on our soldiers who risked life and limb to protect and defend the United States of America.

Hear their story and weep.

It begins on July 26, 1941, when President Roosevelt, faced with the reality of less than 32,000 regular U.S. troops trying to defend themselves against a 500,000- soldier Japanese occupation force, issued a military order inducting members of the entire Commonwealth Army of the Philippines into U.S. military service, making them members of the U.S. Armed Forces in the FAR East or the USAFFE.



In 1942, the U.S. Attorney General recognized officially that the Filipino soldiers inducted into the U.S. military service by Roosevelt were "in active service in the land and naval forces of the United States."

In 1944, under the GI Bill of Rights, these Filipino military personnel were included in consideration for benefits, confirming their veterans status.

In 1945, the Federal Bureau of Veterans Affairs stated that these personnel were eligible for U.S. veterans benefits, thus reconfirming their veterans status.

But then, on Feb. 18, 1946, in an act that U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye described variously as shameful and disgraceful, a betrayal of the Filipino people and a blight on the character of the United States, President Harry Truman signed the Rescission Act of 1946.

This act stripped, cancelled, rendered null and void, the U.S. veterans status of our Filipinos.

What made it even more painful was that the Philippines was the only country of 66 countries with nationals stripped of U.S. veteran status.

The kicker, the supreme irony in all this is that the U.S. subsequently offered a one-time package of $200 million to the Philippines, to divide among the Filipino veterans, in exchange for the cancellation of all possible future claims on the U.S. government by the Veterans.

The Philippines turned down the offer that was sometime in 1947.

Now, 63 years later, the Philippines has been given a $198 million one-time package... LOWER THAN THE ORIGINAL OFFER OF $200 MILLION PACKAGE, WHICH IS WORTH ABOUT $2.1 BILLION NOW.

It is a pale ghost of the original versions of veterans' benefits enhancement acts authored by Senator Inouye.

The original versions restored full veteran status to Filipino veterans of WWII who lost this status under the Rescission Act of 1946.

The total value of the original version was estimated between $50 and $100 million annually.


In sum, the Filipino veterans of WWII who served the United States when the United States needed it most, are expected to be grateful for this $198 million one-time package rather than BEING GIVEN the $100 million a year package that they in all fairness deserve.

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL not give it to them, because they are too busy spending $435 million a day, which is the estimated cost of prosecuting the Iraq war.

With friends like the United States government, the Filipinos need no enemies.

(Aired last February 16 on News on Q)

The question uppermost in the minds of Filipinos is: Will rice prices skyrocket again this year, the way they did last year?

This is an important question because rice is a major part of the Filipino diet, accounting for 47% of our total calorie supply.

The annual rice consumption of every Filipino is estimated to be between 110 kg and 118 kg a year on the average, which means roughly 1/3 of a kilo per day.

Not only that, rice farming is the source of income and employment of about 11.5 million farmers and their family members.

No wonder then that rice issues carry a great deal of political and economic weight in the country.

So let us see how the question is answered by various sectors: IRRI - or the International Rice Research Institute - tends to think that prices will tend to move up again because the rice production estimates have been lowered by 4 % over the original estimates. They attribute this decrease in production estimates to farmers not being able to access credit, plus the increase in fertilizer and other input prices, which have become unaffordable.

The NFA, however, says that there is not going to be any supply problem, because they already have something like 30 days worth of stocks in their warehouses, plus they are ready to import more this year.



Frankly, this does not answer the question of rising rice prices, because last year there was no shortage of rice in the Philippines, but prices still rose to a high of P35.51 per kilo of regular-milled rice, which is 58% more than its price in the previous July of 2007.

But this does not mean that the poor are going to suffer those higher prices. They will be taken care of. Why? because this year is the run-up to general elections in 2010, and this is where the political weight of rice comes into play.

The NFA will surely continue the subsidy, hopefully, the family access cards distributed by the DSWD finding their way to the poorest of the poor.

We should have a more targeted subsidy program. It also should not obscure the fact that our rice farmers are themselves in need of help. Remember that they themselves are part of the poor. Poverty in the Philippines is mostly an agricultural and rural phenomenon.

If those farmers can be helped to increase their productivity, not only will we be spared the cost and the corruption involved in rice importations, we will be reducing poverty in the Philippines, which is after all, the name of the game.

("Analysis by Winnie Monsod" on News on Q which airs weeknights at 9:30 p.m. on Q.)