‘We want justice’: Philippine WWII rape victims of Japanese troops make final bid for reparations

Decades after their 1944 abduction, a small group of elderly Filipino women want Manila to acknowledge their ordeal with compensation

‘In our last moments alive, I hope we can still receive the reparations for what we suffered,’ said survivor, 88, who – aged 8 – was abused for days

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Hilaria Bustamante recalls her horrific experiences as a WWII sex slave for the Japanese army. She was among several plaintiffs who unsuccessfully sued the Japanese government in 1993 for sexual slavery by the military. She died this year, aged 97. File photo: AFP

Published: 8:14pm, 25 Sep 2023Updated: 9:30pm, 25 Sep 2023

Nearly 80 years after they were abducted and raped by Japanese soldiers, a small group of elderly women in the Philippines hope their government will finally acknowledge their wartime ordeal by creating a compensation fund.

For the few remaining survivors, all aged in their late 80s or 90s, the reparations demand issued by a UN committee earlier this year is realistically their last hope following a series of disappointments in their long quest for justice.

“In our last moments alive, I hope we can still receive the reparations for what we suffered,” said survivor Maria Quilantang, 88, in Mapaniqui village, close to the Japanese barracks where the abuses involving about 100 women and girls took place in 1944.

“We want justice … we are tired of waiting,” Quilantang said during a meeting of the Malaya Lolas (Free Grandmothers) group, which now numbers around 20 compared to nearly 100 when it was established 25 years ago.

Announcing its decision in their case in March, the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) gave the government a September deadline to present an action plan. As a signatory of the CEDAW convention, the Philippines is bound by its decisions.

‘We want justice’: Philippine WWII rape victims of Japanese troops make final bid for reparations

Decades after their 1944 abduction, a small group of elderly Filipino women want Manila to acknowledge their ordeal with compensation ‘In our last moments alive, I hope we can still receive the reparations for what we suffered,’ said survivor, 88, who – aged 8 – was abused for days

Decades after their 1944 abduction, a small group of elderly Filipino women want Manila to acknowledge their ordeal with compensation

‘In our last moments alive, I hope we can still receive the reparations for what we suffered,’ said survivor, 88, who – aged 8 – was abused for days