As the US House of Representatives scheduled floor sponsorship of the measure, the leadership in the Philippine House of Representative s directed Zambales Rep. Antonio Magsaysay Diaz to head the same group of Filipino congressmen to appeal to American lawmakers for positive action on House Resolution No 760.

Diaz, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, will be accompanied by Deputy Majority Leader Roman Romulo and Rep. Rozzano Biazon, vice chairman of the House Committee on Defense and Security.

The House team was the same group sent by Speaker Prospero Nograles last month that worked for US Senate approval of the bill filed by concerned American legislators to amend the Rescission Act of 1946 that discriminated against Filipino veterans of World War II and deprived them of certain US government benefits.

In an interview, Congressman Romulo said their group will seek an audience with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Bob Filner, chairman of the Committee on Veterans, and other key leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties in the lower chamber in Washington.

Speaker Pelosi authored a similar anti-discriminatory measure for Filipino war veterans in 1993. Filner is believed to sponsoring the resolution on the US House floor today.

Romulo said close coordination will also be observed with Filipino veterans based in the US to determine lobby options that could help in approval of the measure.

The bill, it was reported, will provide up to $ 90 million annually to be distributed as financial benefits to some 18,000 surviving Filipino veterans and spouses of deceased soldiers who fought with American soldiers during World War II.

Diaz said the first lobby team sent last month was joined by by former Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Manuel Pamaran, president of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines, and Defense Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina of the Philippine Veterans Federation of the Philippines.

"This lobby effort has been initiated and authorized by Speaker Nograles," Diaz told a press conference.

The Zambales solon said the US Congress measure seek to amend the Rescission Act of 1946, specifically Section 107, which denied Filipino World War II veterans who served the US Army the same benefits, rights, and privileges granted to American soldiers.

"Once enacted, the measure will grant compensation and recognition to the Filipino military service during the last World War," he said.

According to Diaz American senators whom they talked with recalled the bravery and sufferings endured by Filipino soldiers when they fought the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.

"They told us how Filipino soldiers with decrepit rifles and meager resources and food, defended Bataan and Corregidor for months," the Zambales lawmaker said.

Diaz pointed out that "retracing the gruesome episodes of war rather than focusing on money benefits pricked" the American conscience.

"This strategy proved to be effective as it has made some senators more determined to give justice to Filipino veterans," the veteran administration legislator said.