Senate resolution urges gov't to seek redress for PH 'comfort women'
Published Mar 13, 2023 08:21 am
A resolution asking the Marcos government to seek reparations for the country’s wartime victims of sexual violence by the Japanese armed forces has been filed in the Senate.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, in filing Senate Resolution No. 539, urged the Philippine government to immediately fulfill its treaty obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and provide just and meaningful reparations to the “comfort women” and their families.
Hontiveros noted that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women had ruled in March 9, 2023 that the Philippines failed to fulfill its treaty obligations because it did not seek redress for the country’s so-called “comfort women.”
The decision stemmed from the complaint filed b 24 members of a non-profit organization called “Malaya Lolas,” composed of people who were formerly victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during Japan’s occupation of the Philippines during World War II.
The complainants were forcibly taken to the headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army in San Ildefonso, Pampanga, known as the Bahay na Pula on Nov. 23 1944 and were detained there for weeks and were subjected to rape, torture and inhumane detention conditions.
“The complainants further alleged that the continued failure of the government to take up their cause is tantamount to a breach of its treaty obligations to ‘adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to prohibit all discrimination against women, and protect women’s rights on an equal basis with men’,” Hontiveros stated in the measure.
The resolution also cited how the UN Committee took note that while Philippine war veterans—mostly men—were given benefits such as educational benefits, healthcare benefits, old age, disability and death pensions—no such privileges were made available to the former “comfort women.”
The resolution also noted how it has been the official position of the Philippine government that war reparations have been paid due to a 1956 treaty with Japan.
But the plight of the “comfort women” only came to light during the 1990s, when the survivors came out to tell their story after decades of trauma, shame and suffering.
“The advances made by the Philippines to address gender inequality and sexual violence in contemporary times only highlight the inexcusable failure to fight for victims of wartime sexual violence,” noted Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.
“There is only a small window of time to make meaningful reparations as many of the survivors have already passed away and the few that remain are in their twilight years,” she pointed out.
“It is, therefore, of extreme urgency that the Philippine government take immediate measures to provide reparations to the survivors and the families of victims of the wartime sexual violence of the Japanese Imperial Army,” the lawmaker stressed.