News reports of sickly and ailing Filipino-Americans, particularly the Filipino war veterans in some parts of America, are creating so much worries among the relatives in the Philippines. Immediate children of some of these Filipinos now staying in the United States are extremely cautious as to what their old folks are undergoing just to earn those "greenbacks".
Well, for me, it’s not only the dollars that make them stay for long. It’s also the amenities and conveniences, not to mention food and medicines that are immediately available if you need them most. In the Philippines, unless you have the money or the land resources planted to coconut, rice, vegetables and root crops, wouldn’t be so much a problem to the families concerned. And if you’re a Filipino veteran, you can always have the option to go to the Sons and Daughter of World War II Veterans Office in Taguig to avail of free medicines. All you have to do is register your names so that proper identification cards can be issued to the requesting parties.
It’s good to know that there is such an agency such as this because the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, where survivors and living veterans avail their medicines and medical check ups. But most veterans and survivors who request medicines prescribed to them by their doctors are oftentimes frustrated because no medicines are available for the taking. It has been a big problem that has not been addressed for a long time now. With the veteran’s property up for sale lately, the more that the suriving Filipino veterans and their dependents would be hard-pressed on where to turn to for medical assistance.
It is no wonder why the weak and ailing Filipino veterans opted to stay longer in the United States because they can easily buy food and medicines with their meager monthly pensions. This is the reason, too, why some of my close relatives don’t want to leave America. If they do, availing these kind of quality medical services in the Philippines would be impossible to attain. Under the current economic conditions in the Philippines, there is no way that ordinary pensioners will ever make both ends meet because everything is going upwards.
For example, the close relatives I’m referring here are in the range of 76 and 84 years old, both males. The former keeps coming back to the US on the ground he is a greencard holder, while the other one is a naturalized US citizen. After serving the Armed Forces of the Philippines fighting in Mindanao since the time of Kamlon until the uprising of the Moro National Liberation Front in Mindanao, he quit the service for good. Then, he tried his luck in the Middle East for a couple of years. But when his US petition was approved, he flew to America and worked in Alaska until his retirement.
Now, he is getting a monthly pension. Yet, I don’t understand why every now and then, he comes to the US to work, despite his advancing age. "I couldn’t bear the rising costs of medicines back home", is all he has to say. "At least, in America, the food is much cheaper and the medicines are free, including medical check-up," he explained. The same answers you get from the older one, now married to a much younger wife, who could pass the age of his daughter from his first marriage.
This means that economic difficulties tend to control the emotions and the psyche of most US pensioners not to go back yet to the Philippines, while they still have the strength to get around. If one is disabled, a motorized wheelchair is always available for free and the public buses are always ready to get you to your destinations safely.