Today is International Women’s Day, a global commemoration of women’s rights and gender equality. It is also the two-year anniversary since the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW Committee) heard the case of the Malaya Lolas and awarded them reparations for the atrocities they suffered.

On March 8, 2023, the UN CEDAW Committee found that the Philippines is in violation of its obligations under international law to prevent discrimination against women, because the Philippine government has passed no laws and adopted no policies to help the Malaya Lolas.

In the Committee’s words, the Lolas have faced “continuous discrimination,” suffering for 81 years since they were first subjected to sexual slavery by Japanese occupation forces in 1944.

CenterLaw reaffirms that the continuing denial of rights to the Malaya Lolas is an issue of global importance: justice delayed for some women is justice denied to all.

In 1997, the Malaya Lolas organized as a group with 96 members who survived sexual slavery during the wartime Japanese occupation; as of today, only 17 members remain alive.

In the 2004 case, Vinuya v. Executive Secretary, the Lolas sought justice from the Philippine Supreme Court, pleading with the government to champion their claims for reparations and an official apology from the Japanese government; their petitions were denied.

Even so, the Court called on the Philippine government to take action and protect the Lolas, as Filipino citizens, “against violation of their fundamental human rights.”

While the Malaya Lolas later sought and received justice from the UN CEDAW Committee in 2023, the implementation of the Committee’s authoritative views on international law has unfortunately been shirked by the Philippine government.

Since March 2023, the proposed Senate Resolution No. 539 ? to fulfill the Philippines’ treaty obligations for reparations ? has stalled in Congress.

Since May 2024, the Technical Working Group to implement the judgment has not convened even once.

It is morally and legally imperative that the Philippine government implement a concrete and effective reparations program for the Malaya Lolas before the opportunity to serve justice is completely lost with their deaths and the erasure of their memory.

The house where the Malaya Lolas were abducted and raped by occupying Japanese forces - Bahay na Pula in San Ildefonso, Bulacan - continues to deteriorate.

In August 2018, the only statue commemorating the history of the Lolas was stolen from Manila Bay; since then, no investigation on the theft has taken place and no other memorial has been erected to replace it.

As years pass, and new generations of Filipinos learn about the Philippines’ recent past in schools and universities, the lack of comprehensive modules on the Malaya Lolas’ history dangerously glosses over the horrors perpetrated against them, and undermines the international community’s calls for non-repetition of these atrocities.

These international obligations are found in the Philippines’ own laws: under Republic Act No. 9710, otherwise known as the Magna Carta of Women, at least five percent of an executive agency or local government unit budget must be used to support Gender and Development programs to eliminate gender-based discrimination, like the kind the Lolas have suffered.

For the first and only time, in May 2023 the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) gave cash to 20 surviving Lolas, amounting to P 10,000 each, and promised to include all Lolas in a social pension program to receive P 1,000 every month.

However, as of date, only 10 of the remaining Lolas have benefited from this program; the rest wait in limbo for delays to their approval and registration. Centerlaw Philippines