Servicemen's children sue US

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuter) - Children of US servicemen and their Filipina mothers, left behind after the US pull-out from the Subic Bay naval base, will begin a lawsuit this week seeking dollars 69m ( pounds 49m) from the US government, a lawyer said on Monday.

Joseph Cotchett, a partner in Cotchett, Illston and Pitre, a California law firm, said the firm would file suit against the Department of Defense tomorrow in the US Court of Claims in Washington DC on behalf of a group of children.

The class-action suit seeks financial assistance for the 8,600 children the law firm says were abandoned by their navy and marine fathers who served at Subic Bay until the navy pulled out in November. The law firm argues that the children were born as a direct result of nearly five decades of US navy 'rest and recreation' policy that it says fostered their births.

If the children win, the money will be put into a trust fund to pay for the education and health care of US servicemen's children, Mr Cotchett said.