ILAR, Bataan—President Benigno Aquino III assured Filipino war veterans of subsidized health services and vowed to continue the modernization of the Armed Forces in Monday’s Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) rites that paid tribute to Filipino and American soldiers who fought the Japanese 70 years ago.
Mr. Aquino, who addressed the elderly soldiers and their relatives gathered at the Dambana ng Kagitingan entirely in Filipino, got thunderous applause when he announced that from March 31, 599 hospitals had been accredited by Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) as regional and provincial extensions, making it easy for the veterans to access medical benefits.“The state honors our veterans and I believe we should repay their sacrifices by caring for them,” he said.
Colonel Roberto Gacayan, 85, a war veteran from La Union province, urged Mr. Aquino and legislators not to ignore the plight of the war veterans.
“It seems that the government has been slowly forgetting what we did during the war. We hope that our benefits will be increased … We will not live long and we hope that in the remaining years of our lives, we get to feel our true worth,” Gacayan, who heads the Confederation of World War II Veterans’ Sons and Daughters Inc., said.
“If it had not been for our sacrifices, the youth will not experience the freedom they are enjoying today,” he said.
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