Veterans Administration Benefits Programs in the Republic of the Philippines

The Philippines is the only foreign country in which the Veterans Administration (VA) operates a comprehensive benefits program. VA is responsible for administering and monitoring both the monetary and medical benefits programs in the Philippines. The present formulae for computing monetary benefits for eligible Filipino veterans needs to be reassessed, since the present lucrative benefits structure provides incentives for program abuse. If the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Hud-Independent Agencies believes that it is now time for the Philippine Government to assume greater responsibilities for providing medical care to Filipino veterans, it should take appropriate steps not to fund the program as authorized in current legislation due to expire on September 30, 1978. However, because of U.S. commitment to provide medical treatment to Filipino veterans for service-connected illnesses, the Subcommittee should take action to change the program from a reimbursable contract basis to a fixed-sum grant basis to provide annual funding for only service-connected care at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center. The fixed-sum grant could be determined using the cost experience over the past several years for treating service-connected illnesses at the Center.