VA Manila Regional Office

The VA Regional Benefit Office at the U.S. Embassy in Manila is at 1501 Roxas Boulevard, on the Embassy's Seafront Compound in Pasay City. VA's page for it says it helps with disability compensation, pensions, education benefits, life insurance and home loans. It shares a building with the VA Manila Outpatient Clinic, which has its own entry. Visits are by appointment only. VA's page says walk-ins cannot be accommodated, and appointments, in person or virtual, are booked through VA's Visitor Engagement Reporting Application. Embassy security rules apply: no cell phone, camera, tablet, laptop, smart watch or other wearable that can record may be brought onto the compound, so bring only the papers the visit needs, with a current photo ID, the DD214, and Social Security numbers and dates of birth for dependents. The office exists on a short lease from Congress. 38 U.S.C. 315(a) lets VA set up regional offices only inside the United States and its territories, commonwealths and possessions. Subsection (b) separately allows VA to maintain a regional office in the Republic of the Philippines until a fixed date, and Congress has pushed that date back more than twenty times since 1992, lately by a year or two at a time. Section 7204 of Public Law 119-37, of November 12, 2025, set it at September 30, 2026. Section 4201 of Public Law 119-103, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, signed September 2, 2026, moved it only to December 11, 2026, the same date that act's stopgap funding ends. Copies of the code that print September 30, 2026 are a version behind. In June 2025 Guam's delegate to Congress said he had recommended moving the office to Guam and was working to reauthorize Manila for one more fiscal year to allow a transition. Nothing enacted so far moves it. The authority in section 315(b) is for the office, not for the benefits: compensation, pension and survivor benefits paid to people in the Philippines rest on the rest of title 38 and are not tied to that date. VA's page lists accredited American Legion and VFW service officers and claims agents in Angeles City, Olongapo City, Cebu City and Butuan City who can file claims and appeals. Use VA's accredited representative search to confirm anyone before signing a power of attorney. One rule applies with particular force here. Under 38 U.S.C. 6103(a), a person who knowingly makes or helps make a false or fraudulent statement in a VA claim forfeits all rights, claims and benefits under every law VA administers except insurance. Section 6103(d)(1) bars that forfeiture against anyone who was a resident of, or domiciled in, a State when the act took place, unless they leave before the time for criminal prosecution runs out. So VA's administrative forfeiture power reaches veterans and survivors living abroad, the Philippines above all, while someone in the United States faces prosecution instead. Under section 6103(c) a veteran's forfeiture does not stop burial benefits, DIC or death pension for survivors after the veteran's death.