Compensation from the Japanese government for Filipina comfort women has already been settled, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Monday.

“I think that issue was settled before already. It was passed to the Supreme Court. It has gone several rounds already and it just might lead to a never-ending claim for compensation. We were compensated in the early 1950s for this before. We were compensated before twice over for this purpose,” Remulla told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) Prospects Forum at the Makati Diamond Residences.

“We'll just point out where the government really lacked focus on this matter. Because as far as I’m concerned, this matter was settled before already. And if there’s no finding, can they be specific about the lack of compensation? About who was not compensated and why? Because this can just lead to a terrible cyclical, circular way of doing business. I think that there should be an end to everything, but we should not forget history,” he added.

On the issue of comfort women demanding a public apology from Japan, Remulla said: “I want them to file a complaint in my office so that we can evaluate it properly. We cannot run along lines of speculation. I cannot enter into a hypothetical argument with anybody. If they will ask for assistance, we will evaluate it.”

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) earlier issued a statement saying that the government has violated the rights of comfort women by failing to give them reparation, social support, and recognition.

“The UN women’s rights committee has found that the Philippines violated the rights of victims of sexual slavery perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War by failing to provide reparation, social support, and recognition commensurate with the harm suffered,” CEDAW said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS