FRANKFURT (AFP) –
For Germany, the crisis of confidence that has slammed the eurozone is not all bad — a weak euro stimulates exports and means that its debt is easier to finance, economists say.

But a crisis is still a crisis and Germany will not necessarily come out a winner, they add.

Since the start of the Greek crisis, the DAX index of leading German stocks “has held up better than that of other European markets, thanks to the weak euro,” said Steffen Neumann of the LBBW bank.

Since January 1, the DAX has gained 0.65 percent while the pan-European Eurostoxx 50 has lost more than 11 percent.

The euro’s fall in value against other major currencies “is very good news” for companies in Germany, the world’s second biggest exporter, the economist noted.

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As the Filipino and American flags were raised side by side at the annual Memorial Day celebration at Manila‘s American Cemetery, World War II veterans like Ernesto Lopez stood extra proud. At the age of 83, he could finally stop fighting.

For more than 60 years, Filipino World War II veterans have been lobbying to receive benefits promised to them by the U.S. government during the war. But it was only with the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 – decades after many of them fought battles in places like Bataan and Corregidor – that Filipino veterans were formally recognized for fighting side by side with the U.S. Armed Forces, and were slated to receive financial compensation for their sacrifice. (Watch a video about WW II vets in Washington.)

When World War II started, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth, and Filipino soldiers became incorporated into the American military command. Some 250,000 Filipinos fought for America during the war, and over half of them died in service. After the U.S. military surrendered to Japan in the archipelago in 1942, thousands of Filipinos fought in a guerilla campaign against their occupiers until General MacArthur and his troops landed in Leyte, an island in the nation’s south, in October 1944. The two forces fought together until Japan was defeated, and the Philippines became liberated.

For Ernesto Lopez, who joined those guerilla forces when he was 14 and helped ferry food and supplies to fighters hiding in the mountains, the long-awaited American compensation was an important milestone. “We need money, but what is important to us is the recognition,” says Lopez, who has yet to receive his payment. “Although we meet Americans who acknowledge our service, it is the recognition by the American government that we have waited for.”

During the war, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that Filipinos who fought against the enemy would be given the same veterans’ benefits as American soldiers, but when President Truman signed the 1946 Rescission Act, that promise was taken away for the majority of those who fought in the war. Though Washington gave no official explanation at the time, Filipino Undersecretary of Veteran Affairs Ernesto Carolina believes the U.S. could not afford to pay so many Filipino veterans in the post-war years. “There were so many fighting that they would have had to pay at least $6 billion at that time,” says Carolina. “After the war, the U.S. needed money for reconstruction efforts.”

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