HERCULES — As a member of the U.S. Army’s elite Philippine Scouts unit, Januario “Janny” Ruiz fought alongside American soldiers in his native Philippines in World War II. He survived the Bataan Death March and six months as a Japanese prisoner of war.

But for decades, he and his fellow Filipino World War II veterans never received the recognition, or benefits, that were bestowed on their American counterparts, despite the fact the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth at the time and its soldiers U.S. nationals.

The Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015, signed into law earlier this month by President Barack Obama, seeks to remedy, at least in part, that slight. It will give some 260,000 Filipino and Filipino-American veterans who served during World War II a collective Congressional Gold Medal, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

“The gold medal is good; what else are they going to do now?” said Ruiz, a Hercules resident who later served with the U.S. Army in the Korean War, where he earned the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. “It shows that we did something by serving.”

The 98-year-old said he wishes it would have come sooner, while more of his peers were still alive.

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Biden rips Trump over reported war dead comments One of those peers who didn’t live to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal was Luis Gaerlan Jr., who died in July 2014 in his San Francisco home. His daughter said the new medal honors him and so many others who defended the United States and didn’t necessarily receive the proper respect for their service.

“This medal establishes their place in history,” said Cecilia Gaerlan, executive director of the Berkeley-based Bataan Legacy Historical Society, which works to promote the historical significance of World War II in the Philippines. “Prior to this, it wasn’t ever formally recognized.”

An estimated 15,000 Filipino veterans, the youngest about 90, are still alive today. Individual replica copper medals could come in a few years to those soldiers and the family members of those who haven’t survived, many of whom live in the Bay Area.

The medal won’t completely make up for years of what some Filipino-American activists have called “shameful behavior” and “neglect” since 1946, when two Congressional “Rescission Acts” canceled the benefits and citizenship offered many of the soldiers from the Philippines who fought for what was called the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. Lawmakers apparently balked at paying benefits of between $1 billion and $3 billion.

Antonio Taguba, a retired two-star general and chairman of the Filipino Veterans Recognition Project, said the Congressional Gold Medal is a “tertiary prize, if you will,” for the Filipino veterans who never got the benefits they had been promised during World War II. But even a consolation prize, he said, is gratefully appreciated.

“After enduring 75 years of injustice and humiliation, our Filipino World War II veterans regained their honor and dignity,” said Taguba, who now lives in Manteca. “Obviously, this is long overdue.”

The seeds of the gold medal were in a 2008 bill introduced by then-U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, now a senator from New Mexico. U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, was one of six representatives who sponsored the House version of the newest bill, which was approved Nov. 30. Obama signed it into law two weeks later.

“This bill, which is now law, ensures that Filipino veterans from our district and across our country get the recognition they deserve for their service and sacrifice during World War II,” Thompson said in a statement.

The Bay Area is home to a large Filipino-American population — fully one-third of Daly City’s population of 104,000 is of Filipino descent, and other notable Filipino-American communities are found in San Francisco, Vallejo, Pittsburg, Hercules and Union City.

Hilarion Ayalin Sr., who fought in the same unit as Janny Ruiz in the Philippines, died in 1993. Hilarion’s son, 77-year-old Cip Ayalin, of Hercules, said his father was treated well as a military man. He also knows others weren’t, and said the Congressional Gold Medal goes a long way toward restoring a sense of honor with those not suitably honored earlier.

“When (President) Truman canceled the benefits, that was rather unfair,” said Ayalin. “They had not been treated well in terms of compensation.”

It wasn’t until 2009 that, as part of a larger stimulus bill, $198 million was appropriated for the approximately 20,000 (at that time) surviving Filipino troops. Those who had become U.S. citizens were to get $15,000 each, and noncitizens $9,000. Ayalin said those one-time payments, while perhaps less than the soldiers deserved, were a meaningful gesture.

For now, the single gold medal will reside at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. When, and if, the individual copper medals are made, Taguba envisions at least one Bay Area medal ceremony at some point.

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Ed Diokno, of Pittsburg, said his father hardly ever talked about his time in the Philippine Scouts and, later, the U.S. Army in the Philippines. But he saw Melchor Diokno, as president of the Filipino American Political Association and other service organizations, lobby for years for members of Congress to sponsor bills to give other Filipino veterans citizenship.

“I wish my dad could have lived to see this day, but I’m sure somewhere he’s smiling, not for himself but for his comrades-in-arms,” said Diokno, adding that the gold medal means a great deal for the soldiers’ surviving families, as well.

“We (Filipinos) revere our elders, so any recognition bestowed on the World War II Filipino veterans — in turn — reflects on their descendants, too, and benefits all the Filipinos who immigrated to the U.S. since the war.”