Justice for ‘comfort women’

What a momentous victory and vindication for the Malaya Lolas! Finally, justice has been served in their case.

It came after the comfort women endured 79 years of trauma brought about by their brutalization at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. In the last 23 years, they suffered repeated rejection from the Philippine government to espouse their cause for compensation. Sadly, most members of the Malaya Lolas, a non-profit organization that aids survivors of sexual slavery by Japanese military forces, have passed on.

On March 8, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) found that the Philippines, as a State Party, failed to honor its obligations under the 1979 Convention on All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Committee also concluded that the government failed to protect the rights of the 24 complainants against continuing discrimination.

Specifically, the CEDAW issued the view that: “Given the extreme severity of the acts of gender-based violence to which the authors were subjected and their right not to be continuously discriminated against and to obtain restitution, compensation and rehabilitation, and given the absence of any possibility of enforcing their rights as fully as possible, the Committee concludes that the State party has breached its obligations under articles 1 and 2 (b) and (c) of the Convention.”

Further, the Committee noted that the Philippine Commission on Women had not addressed the institutionalized system of wartime sexual slavery, its consequences for victims/survivors or their protection needs. In contrast to Filipino male war veterans, CEDAW said, “no corresponding dignified treatment, recognition, benefits or services or any form of support are provided for the Malaya Lolas.”

As their counsel, I am more than happy and grateful for the decision to recognize the “comfort women” as victims of war crimes. It is also a vindication for the Malaya Lolas, given that the Supreme Court had dismissed the case of Vinuya v. Executive Secretary several times. Since our government has failed to provide the victims with adequate legal remedies, the Malaya Lolas are entitled to an official apology and full reparation from the state. The Committee’s views, issued on International Women’s Day, are a fitting gift to these survivors of inhumane crimes perpetrated during World War II.

Decades-long struggle

In the official communication that the European Center for Constitutional Rights (ECCHR), Center for International Law and I sent to CEDAW and the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, the victims recounted their horrific experience under a military sexual slavery system.

In November 1944, Japanese troops raided the district of Mapanique in Candaba, Pampanga. The Malaya Lolas, some of whom were only eight or nine years old at the time, were forced to carry sacks of looted items as they marched towards the “Bahay na Pula.” It was the Japanese headquarters in San Ildefonso, Pampanga. Some of the victims were sexually abused along the way. They were detained in the Bahay na Pula for three weeks at most. The Japanese soldiers repeatedly beat, tortured and violated the Malaya Lolas.

The victims suffered long-term physical, psychological, social and economic trauma. Their sexual enslavement damaged their reproductive and mental health. It also harmed their social relationships in marriage, work and community.

And for the first time since 1998, when they started approaching the executive department, the Malaya Lolas are within reach of restitution and rehabilitation.

Class project and textbook case

In 2004, we filed a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court to compel the government to espouse the petitioners’ claims. My former law students at the University of the Philippines initiated the Vinuya v. Executive Secretary case. Diane Desierto, Neil Silva, Raymond Sandoval, Gary Mallari and Romel Bagares worked on the case as a project for my international humanitarian law class.

Desierto is a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana while Silva is with the UP Law Center. Bagares teaches at the Lyceum of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and San Sebastian College. Sandoval is a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court and Mallari works at the House of Representatives Reference and Research Bureau.

Six years later, the High Court dismissed the case for lack of merit. Unfortunately, it is more remembered as a notorious case of plagiarism rather than a reparation issue. It became a textbook case because it raised issues regarding the decision penned by then Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo. The Court later dismissed the plagiarism case.

In 2014, the Court again denied our motion for reconsideration. The dismissal meant that the Malaya Lolas exhausted all domestic remedies and enabled 24 complainants to present their cases before the CEDAW. We are thankful for the assistance of ECCHR in submitting the communication to the Committee in 2019.

Implementing CEDAW recommendations

But time is running out on the comfort women.

From the original 70 comfort women who petitioned the Philippine government, only 21 persons are still alive. Isabelita Vinuya, the lead petitioner of the case and for whom the jurisprudence was named, passed away in November 2021. Thus, I respectfully exhort the administration of President Marcos Jr. to comply with the CEDAW recommendations.

The UN body has asked the Philippine government “…to ensure that the authors receive from the State party full reparation, including recognition and redress, an official apology and material and moral damages, for the continuous discrimination that they suffered and restitution, rehabilitation and satisfaction, including the restoration of their dignity and reputation, which includes financial reparation proportionate to the physical, psychological and material damage suffered by them and to the gravity of the violations of their right.”

I hope the government takes immediate action in issuing an official apology to and restoring the status quo ante (the state of affairs that previously existed) of the comfort women.

Before it is too late.