MANILA, Philippines - You see them on Powell Street, San Francisco, USA: Filipino veterans of World War II, huddled against the cold, amid layers of clothing, talking, laughing and fighting WWII all over again, guerillas twice over because they fought for the US but are still denied their equity benefits.

?They are suffering, risking their lives in the United States,? said Antonio O. ?Tonyboy? Cojuangco, Tanghalang Pilipino chair, resident drama company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, at a recent press conference at Milky Way Restaurant in Makati.

?They are fighting their war in the US, sending allowances back home,? Cojuangco said. ?They chose to be guerillas both times. They are suffering from illnesses but they struggle to send their money?$600 a month?back home.?

Real-life characters

The presscon was called to announce the forthcoming Tanghalang Pilipino play, ?Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street,? an adaptation for the stage by Rody Vera based on Benjamin Pimentel?s novel of the same name. A copy of the novel (Ateneo University Press) was distributed to the media during the presscon.

Pimentel, now US-based, based his characters on real-life veterans whom he met and observed in San Francisco.

?I really was touched by the novel,? said Nanding Josef, the new artistic director of Tanghalang Pilipino.

?Nakakalungkot at nakakaiyak [it makes you sad, and cry].? But the play, like the novel, has its funny, hilarious moments, along with the underlying seriousness and pathos of the theme.

Josef read a short history of the struggle of the Filipino war veterans to obtain justice from the US government, specifically to obtain the same equity benefits extended their American counterparts. In 1946, the US Congress ruled that these veterans were classified ?as not in active service,? and their benefits were denied.

In April this year, the US Senate finally passed the Philippine Veterans Equity Bill. But later a conservative politician argued that these benefits should be given to US troops in Iraq instead, and the pension for the Filipinos was dropped in favor of a smaller lump sum.

?This means more heartaches for our warriors,? Josef said. ?But in 2009 [at the US House of Representatives], they will resume their struggle.? Most of the veterans are now in the 80s and 90s.

Four weekends

?Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street? opens Nov. 7 at the CCP?s Tanghalang Huseng Batute and will run for four weekends.

It stars veteran actors Tommy Abuel, Bembol Roco, Lou Veloso, Joel Gruta and Dido de la Paz, who all performed a rousing number from the play.

During the press con, director Chris Millado said that in the ?90s in San Francisco he had observed these war veterans and noted that some of their clothes came from the Salvation Army. But they were always smiling, chatting and feeding the doves.

?They were a whole generation of forgotten heroes,? Millado declared. ?Now it makes me wonder what happened to them. I think they?re dying isa-isa [one by one]. And that is why we are going to tell this very important story of forgotten heroes.?