NEW DOCUMENTARY FILM RECOUNTS STORIES OF FILIPINO WWII VETERANS WHO MIGRATED TO THE U.S.
With Bayanihan Equity Center Executive Director Luisa Antonio (Victor Bognot photo)
The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, represented by Vice Consul Adrian Baccay, attended the world premiere of the documentary film “Pursuit Against Time: Filipino World War II Veterans Stories”, produced by the San Francisco-based Filipino American Community group Bayanihan Equity Center (BEC), at the Marines Memorial Theater in San Francisco on 26 July 2024.
The film highlights the stories of the aging Filipino veterans of the Second World War who migrated to the Bay Area in the 1990s. The film also features work of the BEC—established in 1999 as the Veterans Equity Center—in advancing the welfare of the veterans and their families, and in pushing for legislation to repeal the 1946 Rescission Act.
According to the documentary, following the passage of the 1990 Immigration Act, 13,849 Filipino veterans immigrated to the United States between 1990 and 1997. With an attrition rate of 1%, there are only less than 500 living Filipino veterans in the United States as of 2024.
(San Francisco PCG photo)