This was written in 2008, when I was a Yuchengco media fellow at the University of San Francisco’s Center for the Pacific Rim. It’s part of a series I did on the struggle of the widows of Filipino soldiers who died fighting for their rightful benefits as U.S. veterans. Today I found this article.  Sad, just sad. San Francisco – Pilar dela Cruz is 68 years old and worried about her taxes next year. “I just read in a newspaper that they want to increase taxes because of the crisis,” she says one afternoon after arriving home from her morning shift. Despite her own age and knee problem, dela Cruz, the widow of a Filipino veteran, is still working eight hours a day, five days a week, as a care provider for the elderly. Her husband Ricardo, a former guerilla fighter who has received no recognition or financial compensation for his service in the U.S. military during World War II, left her with nothing when he died in 2001. “I plan to work until I’m 70, so …