Filipino Comfort Women: Is This Really Our Plight?

Studying the Philippine history, learning how some saints were martyred to watching reenactments still make me cringe. I know for a fact how our ancestors were maltreated during the war and during the occupation of the Spanish, Japanese and the Americans. Personally, I find the Japanese Era the worst.

We all know how it went down. People were tortured, asked to walk miles and let them die because of starvation. All these atrocities were endured by our ancestors before attaining freedom from our captors. But what did the victims get after all these? Or what did we, as a nation get after all those maltreatments?

The Japanese government has over and over apologized to the whole world especially to the countries they have conquered and destroyed. Their apologies were however very general. And a certain group of Filipino women are asking to be heard and given attention. We cannot blame them. They are women. They were used and abused. They were young and innocent then. But they were marred by war. They were traumatized by the abuse they suffered from the hands of the Japanese soldiers. These are the members of the Lila Pilipina. Or to better put it, these are what were left of the group of the lolas of Lila Pilipina.

It took these women fifty years to tell their stories to the whole world. The Philippines, which is predominantly Catholics are born with the culture of being conservative. This explains why these women had the hardest time in coming out to tell others what exactly they experienced during the war. They were forced to become “prostitutes.” They were the sex slaves of the Japanese soldiers. And as if this is not enough, they have not been compensated or even given a proper apology or even recognized as “victims”.

The estimate was one thousand women were victims. One hundred seventy-four of which became members of the group Lila Pilipina and from which one hundred four have passed away while the ones left are already old. They have long been fighting for justice and recognition. But their cries have fallen on deaf ears. Ex-president Arroyo was not able to address the issue, neither was our current President, Aquino was able to take the topic up when the Emperor visited the Philippines.

I feel bad for these victims because it has been several years since their experience and none of their pleas have been answered. How hard is it to have the victims of war given compensation? How hard is it to give importance to people who have risked their own lives for others? How hard is to take care, look after and respect the women in our lives? They are not just women. But they are also victims.

This should be given importance once and for all. The current president or the next president should one way or another push for the recognition and just compensation for these women. There is nothing diplomacy cannot handle. The Japanese government must understand that they still have responsibilities to these women. They must address their wishes even before their number depletes. I believe if the president will sit down with the Japanese leaders, he will be able to resolve if not all at least 2 of their issues. If they do not move now, these comfort women’s plight will not end.