STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1006

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1119

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1119 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FILIPINO VETERANS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Office of Veterans Services to cover the burial costs of Filipino veterans of World War II, including the cost of returning the veterans' remains to the Philippines for burial.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Office of Veterans Services; Veterans Advisory Board; Consulate General of the Republic of the Philippines of Honolulu; National Association for Uniformed Services, Hawaii Chapter; World War II Fil-Am Veterans and Ladies Auxiliary, Hawaii Chapter; and three individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that during World War II, Filipino soldiers fought, suffered, and died in their efforts to defend and reclaim the Philippine Islands from foreign aggression and provide the Allied forces with a strategic base from which the final effort to bring an end to World War II was launched.  Many of these Filipino soldiers have been denied burial benefits, including the return of their remains to the Philippines, due to the Office of Veterans Services' lack of funds.  Implementation of this measure will recognize the sacrifices of many World War II Filipino veterans and their final wishes to be buried in their homeland.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1119, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

________________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair