EVER since Rosa Henson unveiled, in 1992, her harrowing experience at the hands of Japanese forces during World War II, justice for thousands of sex slaves in the Philippines euphemistically called “comfort women” has never been fully realized.
Japan formally apologized in 1991 to comfort women, who “lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere.” In 2019, they said 211 women in the Philippines received atonement money and medical support amounting to ¥3.2 million (roughly P1.2 million).
And yet, surviving comfort women and their representatives feel that the Philippine government has completely sidelined and forgotten them.
“Unfortunately, what we are seeing is that it feels as though the Philippine government is just waiting for the last lola to die,” a volunteer lawyer for the Malaya Lolas (Free Grandmothers), a Pampanga-based group of surviving World War II comfort women, told the Varsitarian. “[T]hey might not have to wait that long because a lot of the lolas are sick now.” (The lawyer requested anonymity to avoid compromising her trip to Japan.)
The Philippines was called out last year by the Commission on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 protecting women’s rights, for its failure to provide “full reparation, including recognition, redress and an official apology for material and moral damages” against comfort women.
The CEDAW decision laid bare the stark differences between the country’s treatment of war veterans and comfort women as the former, who are predominantly male, receive healthcare benefits, pension and burial assistance, while the latter has no corresponding benefits to enjoy.
“[T]he comfort women – they are entitled to equal protection [but] were not given any,” public interest lawyer Romel Bagares, executive director of the Center for International Law, told the Varsitarian. “In fact, the rights were denied, and the government, therefore, was discriminatory.”
Imperial Japan subjected women to forced prostitution between 1932 and 1945. Impoverished Korean women aged between 16 and 21 years old were coaxed and intimated to work in comfort stations. In 1937, the Japanese military raped up to 80,000 Chinese women as they massacred citizens of the city of Nanking for six weeks.
When the Japanese took control of the Philippines in 1941, a number of women were forced to provide sexual services to the colonizers’ army, with family members killed in front of the victims.
Henson, who died in 1997 at age 69, recounted her horrific tale for the first time in the book “Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny,” which took about a year to write. She was abandoned by her husband upon divulging the painful revelations.
Destiny proved cruel to whom they called Lola Rosa: She was the product of a rape incident that her mother suffered at the hands of a wealthy businessman. During the war, Japanese soldiers took turns in raping her every day for nine months until Hukbahalap guerillas from Pampanga rescued her.
In 1997, Isabelita Vinuya – a comfort woman who survived torture and rape inside a residence in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, called Bahay na Pula (The Red House) – established the Malaya Lolas, demanding an apology and reparations from Japan. Vinuya died in 2021, one day preceding the death of a comfort woman from China named Yu Aizhen.
Hazel Faco, a volunteer lawyer for Malaya Lolas, said the group is fighting for the government to acknowledge its decades-long failure to address the plight of comfort women.
“Hindi kasi charity ‘yong pinaglalaban namin dito eh,” she told the Varsitarian. “It’s actually a formal acknowledgement of what happened to them, na ‘yong nangyari sa kanila, totoo. And it’s an act of injustice and that, we are sorry na hindi namin kayo pinaglaban for the past few decades. ‘Yon ‘yong hinihingi namin sa Philippine government.”
Friendship
For Charisse Castaño, public relations officer at Gabriela Women’s Party, the country’s lack of support for comfort women stems from the fact that it wants to keep its relationship with Japan intact.
“Ito ‘yong treatment [ng government] sa comfort women: Just to keep quiet. Do the bare minimum,” Castaño told the Varsitarian. “[B]igyan sila ng charity para tumahimik and then kapag nawala na ‘yong pinakahuling lola, mawawala na rin ‘yong problema natin. They don’t want to compromise on the relationship with Japan.”
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan touted that his country’s ties with the Philippines had reached a “golden age.” Addressing a joint session of Congress on Nov. 4, 2023, he declared: “We cannot forget the endeavor of our predecessors based on the spirit of tolerance, including the pardon of Japanese war criminals by President (Elpidio) Quirino in 1953, which paved the way for our two countries to overcome difficult times and build the friendly relationship we enjoy today.”
Japan began rehabilitating its image on the international stage in 1951 with the passage of the San Francisco Treaty, with the Philippines being one of the signatories. Japan paid its former colony $550 million in war reparations as a result.
Most recently, the two countries entered into negotiations to forge a defense pact called the Reciprocal Access Agreement that would provide access to Philippine bases and facilitate joint exercises.
Castaño criticized President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for his close ties with Japan without demanding reparations to compensate comfort women.
“Seemingly ay binabago ‘yong ating kasaysayan at mistulang parang walang dumanak na dugo at walang naabusong kababaihan dito sa Filipinas dahil sa ngayon ay todong pagpapasok ng mga dayuhang militar ang ginagawa ng gobyerno,” she said.
“So far, wala tayong nakikitang measures kasi kahit si President Marcos, kahit noong bumisita dito ‘yong top government officials galing Japan, ay wala rin naman siyang sinabi tungkol sa pagsusulong ng karapatan ng mga comfort women.”
In 2010, the Supreme Court denied Malaya Lolas’s petition to compel the Philippine government to demand Japan for an official apology and reparations before the International Court of Justice.
“[W]e greatly sympathize with the cause of petitioners, and we cannot begin to comprehend the unimaginable horror they underwent at the hands of the Japanese soldiers,” Associate Justice Mariano Del Castillo wrote in Vinuya v. Romulo. “Needless to say, our government should take the lead in protecting its citizens against violation of their fundamental human rights. Regrettably, it is not within our power to order the Executive Department to take up the petitioners’ cause.”
Discrimination
In the CEDAW decision, the 20-person committee highlighted the “indirect discrimination” that comfort women were suffering, as evidenced by the establishment of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, which handles veterans’ pensions and other benefits. “The Committee takes note of the assertion that it is discriminatory that no corresponding dignified treatment, recognition, benefits or services or any form of support are provided for the Malaya Lolas,” the 19-page decision read.
Lawyers believe that the prevalence of patriarchy in Philippine society has warped the government’s treatment of comfort women.
“Ang sad reality kasi dito sa ating lipunan, tinitignan iyong kababaihan bilang mahihina, pang-kama lang, [at] dapat nasa bahay lang,” Castaño lamented.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the Senate deputy minority leader, filed Senate Bill 539, urging the Philippine government to fulfill the recommendations of CEDAW, including the establishment of a nationwide reparation scheme, removal of discriminatory policies involving policies to aid civilian victims of war, create a memorial to preserve Bahay na Pula and include the plight of victims in high school and college curriculum. The bill still sits on the committee level.
The opposition Makabayan Bloc, for its part, has filed House Bill 8859 that will declare August 14 as “National Memorial Day for Comfort Women.” The bill remains pending before the Committee on Women and Gender Equality since it was filed on Aug. 15, 2023.
With fewer than 20 Filipino comfort women still alive – most are already frail that advocate groups and family members refused to make them available for an interview – lawyers plead with a nation known for its short-term memory to pass the harrowing tales of comfort women toward the next generation.
“[I]f you do not understand what happened to you in the past, there’s a very big possibility that you will not be able to chart your future well,” the volunteer lawyer from Malaya Lolas stressed. “And then there’s a big possibility that you will not be aware of the many dangers that the people are facing in terms of possibilities of wars of occupation happening again.”
