MANILA, Philippines — The slow march begins each day before sunrise as old soldiers, many hobbling on canes or pushed in wheelchairs, line up across the Philippines, hoping for some American stimulus.

More than 20,000 Filipinos who say they helped U.S. troops fight the Japanese in World War II have applied for veterans benefits offered in the $787 billion economic stimulus package President Barack Obama signed into law in February. The number of applications exceeds the original estimate of 18,000 veterans eligible for payments under the $198 million program. And even though about 10 of the veterans die each day, the applicant list is still growing, said Ernesto Carolina, a retired Philippine general in charge of veterans affairs.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs office in Manila began interviewing the old soldiers to confirm their eligibility just two days after Obama signed the stimulus bill on Feb. 17. But even that short delay meant several veterans died before they could register, and their widows aren’t eligible to receive the benefits.

The Philippines was a U.S. colony under Japanese occupation during the war when some 470,000 Filipinos answered Gen. Douglas Mac-Arthur’s call for volunteers and helped U.S. forces defeat the Japanese. Many fought as guerrillas, secretly cooperating with U.S. forces after the Japanese forced MacArthur to retreat from the Philippines in 1942.

By executive order, President Franklin D. Roosevelt classified the Filipinos as veterans of the U.S. forces “and they were supposed to receive the same benefits,” said Carolina.

But in 1946, Congress stripped the Filipinos of their right to citizenship and veterans benefits, “and by doing that, the U.S. government saved something like $57 billion — it’s in the records,” Carolina said.

The veterans’ feeling that they had been double-crossed festered over the decades as they fought for those rights. Several U.S. politicians backed them, but their bills kept dying in Congress.

The stimulus package provides one-time payments of $15,000 to Filipino veterans who are now American citizens, roughly one-third of those veterans thought to still be alive. Noncitizens can receive $9,000.

Veterans Affairs, which has the final say on who gets the benefits, set up 12 interview centers in Philippine provinces and three in Manila. Filipinos can also apply by mail during 2009, but the veterans’ average age is about 90 now, so many are anxious to get their names in fast.