WASHINGTON, DC - Filipino World War II veteran Tomas Culanag, a Capitol Hill activist and a regular White House protester, joined his fallen comrades.
"Tom," 87, lost his final battle to pneumonia at the local VA hospital before midnight on January 18, 2011, according to his widow, Rose Culanag.
Culanag served as sergeant in the New Philippine Scouts of the United States Army from 1946 until 1949. Before that he was a recognized WWII guerrilla and a member of the Philippine Commonwealth Army. He was a born in Bayombong in the province of Nueva Vizcaya.
He immigrated to U.S. when he was naturalized in 1993. Despite his chronic asthma and arthritis, Culanag joined the Filipino veterans "equity bill" campaign. He marched to restore their official
recognition and to win back their veterans health, pension and burial benefits because of a discriminatory U.S. law passed by the Congress in 1946.
Culanag won fame in 1998 when his photo as he tore up his denied Department of Veterans Affairs benefit application in front of the White House was prominently displayed by the Washington Post newspaper.
The year before, he was arrested by the police and spent half a day in jail after he chained himself to the White House fence to protest the lack of presidential support. He also regularly visited the offices of the congress members and senators and attended congressional hearings