Filipino comfort women say no to war

“We will continue to renounce war because we do not want the next generation to experience what we experienced.”

Filipino comfort woman Lola Estelita Dy celebrated her 94th^e anniversary during a press conference coinciding with the anniversary of the removal of the Lola statue along Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard in Manila on April 27, 2018.

Lola Estelita wanted to become a teacher. But her dream was shattered in 1944, or eighty years ago, at the young age of 14 when she was confined for three weeks in a military brothel in Talisay, Negros Occidental, where she was repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers.

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“I tried to fight back when I felt pain. The Japanese got angry, held me by the head and pushed me against the table. When I regained consciousness, the Japanese had disappeared. A woman told me not to fight back next time because you might get killed. So every time I was raped, I would just cry and cover my eyes,” Lola Estelita said in an interview.

Her wish was not for a longer life, but for peace to reign in this country.

She noted that she is dedicating the remaining years of her life to educating the next generation about the horrors of war, in hopes of preventing a repeat of past mistakes.

Lola Estelita expressed her concerns last weekend during the ‘No to War’ media forum organized by the Kamuning Bakery Café over the 2024 Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises between the US and the Philippines, which began on April 22 and end on May 18.

With nearly 17,000 participants (11,000 from the US and 5,000 from the Philippines) and observers from 14 countries, a series of complex missions will be conducted across various domains, including maritime security, detection and targeting, air and missile defense, dynamic missile attacks, cyber defense and information operations .

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President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is exploring the possibility of Japanese forces participating in military exercises in Balikatan next year.

Some of their key conflict scenarios are set in or near the disputed West Philippine Sea, where the Chinese and Philippine coast guards and escort ships have played a role in a series of increasingly tense territorial confrontations since last year.

“Balikatan 2024 is a dangerous and unnecessary flex that only serves Washington’s goal of deploying more of its military assets in the West Philippine Sea and other parts of the country,” Gabriela Women’s Party representative Arlene Brosas said.

“If you allow the entire country to become a playground for war, claiming sovereignty doesn’t look like that,” she added.

About 200,000 women from Korea, China, Burma, New Guinea and the Philippines were held in captivity and raped during World War II as part of one of the largest operations of sexual violence in modern history.

The victims have spent their lives in misery, suffering physical injury, pain and disability, and mental and emotional suffering.

In December 2017, a two-meter tall ‘Lola’ statue was installed along Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard as an unnamed woman dressed in a traditional Filipino dress, blindfolded, with hands clasped to her chest.

The Lola statue represents the dignity of Filipino women and reminds us that wars of aggression must always be fought, and that sexual slavery and violence should never again happen to any woman anywhere.

However, it was removed on April 27, 2018, reportedly due to a drainage improvement project, but seen as submitting to protests from Japan. It was later declared missing in August 2019 when the artist, Jonas Roces, failed to deliver the statue for reinstallation in Baclaran Church.

On International Women’s Day last year, March 8, 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released a decision finding that the “Philippines violated the rights of victims of sexual slavery committed by the Japanese Imperial Japanese. army during World War II by failing to provide reparation, social support and recognition commensurate with the damage suffered.”

The CEDAW Committee pointed out that the Philippine government had failed to take appropriate legislative and other measures to prohibit all discrimination against women and to protect the rights of women on an equal basis with men.

It noted that while Philippine war veterans, who are mainly men, are entitled to special and valued treatment from the government, such as health care benefits, old age, disability and death pensions, there was no such action among the comfort women.

Of the more than 200 documented survivors in the late 1990s, fewer than 40 Filipino comfort women are still alive.

Lola Estelita said their dwindling numbers highlight a sense of urgency for them to receive a formal, unequivocal public apology and just compensation from Japan, as well as accurate historical recording while their voices can still be heard.

(Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers Department of Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Firm. For comments, please email [email protected], or call 09175025808 or 09088665786.)

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