Enlarge
#gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/7214
Mae Ryan

Phillipino vigil that took place at the oval

Sixty-five years ago this week, thousands of American and Filipino soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese after the Battle of Bataan were forcibly marched more than 60 miles to prison camps in what is now known as the Bataan Death March.

Last night, members of the Pilipino-American Student Union (PASU) held a candlelight vigil in the Oval to commemorate the anniversary of the march — during which, according to some estimates, 10,000 of the 75,000 captives died before reaching the prison camps.

The vigil — which also supported the pending Filipino Veterans Equality Act (FVEA) — was part of a nationwide series of events coordinated by Student Action for Veterans Equity, an advocacy group of which PASU is a member organization.

Members of PASU worked for two months to organize and plan the campus vigil, and similar events took place on college campuses across the nation, ranging from California to Virginia.

“This is a vigil to commemorate and remind us that Filipino veterans who fought in World War II have not received benefits,” said Michael Dela Cruz ‘07.

Approximately 75,000 candles — one for each soldier forced to participate in the 1942 march — were lit across the country last night, including 300 to 350 at Stanford.

FVEA first appeared in Congress in 1993 and is scheduled for discussion by the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee tomorrow.

The act aims to rectify and reverse the Rescission Act of 1946, which stripped American-allied World War II Filipino soldiers of their veteran status. If ratified, FVEA will help the approximately 20,000 living Filipino veterans who organizers said currently lack access to many veterans’ benefits.

“This year has been projected as the year in which this issue is resolved,” said Hialy Gutierrez ‘07, a member of PASU. “The majority of Representatives that have supported the issue are in Congress right now. The person who is chairman of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee has supported the issue.”

Vigil coordinators said that raising awareness about Filipino veterans’ issues was an important goal of last night’s event.

“The bills have been doing better each time around, but the biggest problem is still getting attention to the issue,” Dela Cruz said. “We hope to bring this issue to the attention of the younger generation.”

PASU co-chair Dana Austria ‘08 expressed optimism that FVEA would be passed in the next year. If the act is approved, she said, it would be beneficial to the Filipino-American community as a whole because of the centrality of veterans’ issues.

“There are issues of youth, education, culture, housing,” Austria said. “It’s one population, but it covers so many issues.”