Group urges Biden to include issue of Filipino...

attention,” the letter released by the Filipino Amerasians Reunification Coalition said.

The coalition asks for a humanitarian executive order “that would protect the rights and welfare of current and future Filipino Amerasian children and adults by including them in the US-PH EDCA Agreement terms of engagement. This would heal this festering wound between the Filipino and American People.”

The EDCA terms of engagement are being negotiated by Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin with their PH counterparts in 2+2 meetings in Washington. Earlier, they have agreed to increase the number of PH military-run joint bases to nine.

"Your Amerasian executive order will be timely in light of the 15,000 visiting US troops now in “Balikatan” training with Filipino soldiers. A surge of new Amerasian children can be expected in future years,” the letter states.

The coalition urged Biden to support Filipino Amerasian legislation in the US Senate and House (“Uniting Families Act of 2021” (H.R. 4522 in www. congress.gov) that wold reunite Amerasians with “their fathers and/or American siblings who have accepted financial responsibility for them since they have proven through their DNA to be the offspring of the American service member.”

The coalition also asks the Biden administration to “seriously promote democracy and protect human rights” with the government of President Marcos Jr. “Your reasonable increases of

Amerasians are abandoned children of American military fathers who served in the Philippines during the Cold War and the war in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of UPA