High time PH ensures justice for ‘Malaya Lolas’

I recently read with great interest Ceres Doyo’s column on the Malaya Lolas whose story is known as the mass rape of Mapanique, during World War II (“Flashback: ‘Bahay na Pula,’” Human Face, 3/17/23).

They recently won a landmark decision at the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw). The Cedaw decision finds that the Philippines breached its obligations under the Cedaw Convention and provided a list of recommendations to the Philippine government.

This groundbreaking decision by Cedaw acknowledges how gender-based discrimination against Filipino women has been ongoing for over four decades of the inaction of several government entities, courts, and society as a whole. The decision acknowledged the physical, psychological, social, and intergenerational impact experienced by women raped and enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. It resulted in systemic violence against women as well as social and political domination over them.

Whereas Filipino men were granted preferable treatment, even celebrated as war heroes and granted economic aid, the women were subjected to sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence, and received no support. They were discriminated against, and publicly maligned as “leftovers,” thus, highlighting the government’s role in perpetuating gender inequality in post-conflict.

The Cedaw decision calls on the Philippine government to ensure that the Malaya Lolas receive full reparations, including rehabilitation and material damages, for the continuous discrimination that they suffered, and the restoration of their dignity, which includes financial reparation proportionate to the physical, psychological, and material damage suffered by them.

I hope that the Philippine government takes the Cedaw decision seriously as it sets a groundbreaking and critical precedent in Asia and beyond, underlining the government’s responsibility under the Cedaw Convention.

I was with the Malaya Lolas when they first came to our office in 1996 to tell their horrendous stories of mass rape and sexual slavery. I brought their case to the internationally recognized Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery in 2000. They have brought their case to the Philippine Supreme Court and got a differing decision.

It is high time that our government takes action for our lolas, and shows the international community that it takes its responsibility under the UN Convention seriously with respect to survivors of rape and sexual slavery.

Indai Sajor, senior gender advisor, Convener Tokyo Women’s Tribunal