Gov't urged to follow UN recommendations for 'comfort women'

The Philippines must immediately apologize and indemnify the World War II “comfort women” following the United Nations (UN) findings that the government violated their rights by failing to provide reparation and social support, a legal counsel of the victims said Thursday.

Lawyer Harry Roque, a counsel to World War II Filipina sexual slaves,  said the administration should implement the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to help the surviving victims.

“As a State party to CEDAW, we ask our government to take immediate action while the remaining members of the Malaya Lolas are still with us,” said Roque. “I am glad these war victims achieved this legal victory on International Women’s Day”.

On Wednesday, the UN CEDAW said found the Philippines breached its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women following their review of the complaint of 24 Filipinas who are part of Malaya Lolas, an organization for women victimized by sexual slavery committed by the Japanese Army in World War II.

The committee recommended that the complainants receive from the State party "full reparation, including recognition and redress, an official apology and material and moral damages."

It said that this was for the "continuous discrimination that they suffered and restitution, rehabilitation, and satisfaction, including the restoration of their dignity and reputation, which includes financial reparation proportional to the physical, psychological and material damage suffered by them and to the gravity of the violations of their rights."

Roque welcomed the decision and said, “the state is obliged to fully recognize the victims’ rights that have been trampled, first by the Japanese Imperial army and, later by the inaction of the Philippine executive department since 1998 to this day.”

“Aside from issuing an official apology for contravening the 1979 Convention, our government must restore the victims’ status quo ante (the state of affairs that previously existed). It includes exhaustive psycho-sexual support, as well as material and moral compensation for the war crime victims,” he added.

In 2009, Isabelita Vinuya and members of the non-profit Malaya Lolas filed a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court to compel the government to espouse the claims of ‘comfort women’ before the Japanese government.

In 2010, the High Court dismissed the Vinuya case for lack of merit. The dismissal enabled Malaya Lolas to file the case before the CEDAW after exhausting domestic legal remedies. 

Roque said the Vinuya vs. Executive Secretary has become a textbook case “because the issue of reparation took a back seat to plagiarism issue related to the decision penned by former Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo. The Supreme Court dismissed the plagiarism case for lack of merit.

Vinuya, the lead petitioner and for whom the jurisprudence was named, passed away in 2021. -- BAP, GMA Integrated News