Magdaleno Sanchez Dueñas Photo: Rick Rocamora/SFGate Magdaleno Sanchez Dueñas was born 90 years ago in what was then the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He died on the 27th of last month (February), 2005 in a California convalescent home. Magdaleno was born in 1914 and grew up in a convent because his family was destitute, and could not afford to raise him themselves. He managed to complete his elementary education and found work as an errand boy and later as a stevedore working the the busy Philippine ports. The life of this diminutive yet resourceful man could likely have been uneventful had Magdaleno Dueñas not answered the call of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for Filipinos to take up arms and join in the fight against the Japanese. In 1941 Magdaleno Dueñas packed his bags and joined the 101st Infantry. With the fall of the country to the Japanese, he fled to the mountains and together with other Filipinos and Americans formed guerrilla units and continued to battle the Japanese. Magdaleno was at one point captured by the enemy yet never gave away any information regarding his fellow guerrillas. He even managed to escape from his captors that very same night. Then in April 1943, he was part of the team that freed 10 American hostages from a POW camp in Davao. His guerrilla unit hid the Americans until they were rescued by an American submarine and spirited off to safety. In 1991 while still living in the Philippines, Magdaleno met a man who ran a relocation agency that allegedly helped Filipino veterans relocate to the United States. He signed on with this outfit only to find himself a virtual prisoner upon arriving in the U.S. He, and a dozen other aging veterans were crammed into a dilapidated house in Richmond owned by the agency. They were forced to live in crowded and unsanitary conditions and often times even fed dog food, while all their Social Security checks were collected and cashed against their will. The scam was eventually exposed by a group of diligent Filipino American activists and the perpetrators were prosecuted. Until his death, Magdaleno Dueñas worked to restore the rights and benefits promised them by President Roosevelt in 1941--American citizenship and full veterans' benefits. A promise that was reneged on after Roosevelt's death by the U.S. Congress in 1946 when it reversed that wartime pledge made to Filipinos. While last year's Filipino WWII Veterans Equity Act (HR 677) almost made it through the Congress, there is serious doubt that any similar bill would ever make it through this conservative-dominated congress. On her website, Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, ends her tribute to Magdaleno Duenas with: "We will never forget the sacrifices Mr. Duenas and other Filipino veterans made for our freedom. We must dedicate ourselves as a nation to ensure that America fulfills its moral obligation to those who pay the high price for our freedom." But at this late stage; with Filipino veterans in their 80's and 90's any future bill--if one ever makes it through the U.S. Congress--would be largely symbolic. Sadly, our Filipino World War II veterans have been victimized by all sides in this issue. The Philippine Government is, for the most part impotent, unable to help even if it wanted to because of financial constraints as well as bureaucratic ineptness. The American Government on the other hand continues to watch the clock and stall for time, hoping to avoid doing what it had once promised to do. But even more egregious are the actions of those Filipinos who prey on these old and vulnerable veterans to rob them of what little they have in life. Published 2005