The Malaya Lolas () are an organization based in

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga ( pam, Lalawigan ning Pampanga; tl, Lalawigan ng Pampanga ), is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

composed of people who were formerly " comfort women" or victims of sexual slavery by the

Japanese imperial army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

during the

Japanese occupation of the Philippines The Japanese occupation of the Philippines (Filipino: ''Pananakop ng mga Japones sa Filipinas''; ja, 日本のフィリピン占領, Nihon no Firipin Senryō) occurred between 1942 and 1945, when Imperial Japan occupied the Commonwealth of the ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

History

The history of the Malaya Lolas goes back to the

during

. The members of the group are mainly women who were gathered by

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

soldiers from the town of Mapanique and was interred at the

Bahay na Pula The Bahay na Pula (Tagalog, 'Red House') is a former hacienda in San Ildefonso, Bulacan in the Philippines. The site is remembered for the mass rapes and murders committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The Japanese military mu ...

to be raped. The Malaya Lolas were established in 1997 and initially had 90 members. Some of the women's husbands, sons, and other male relatives and acquaintances who were victims of war crimes are also members of the group. By 2014, only about 30 members remained due to deaths.

Legal cases

The Malaya Lolas filed a suit demanding reparation from the Japanese government under Japanese courts but this was dismissed since they did not have

legal personality Legal capacity is a quality denoting either the legal aptitude of a person to have rights and liabilities (in this sense also called transaction capacity), or altogether the personhood itself in regard to an entity other than a natural person ...

to sue under international law and was told that the group's claims must have sponsorship of the Philippine government. The organization then having more than 70 members filed a case before the Supreme Court in March 2004. They said that the Philippine government violated its legal obligation to deal with cases of crimes against humanity, when certain government officials did not support them in their complaints against the Japanese government before the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

and other international courts. They urged the court to hold these officials accountable for

abuse of discretion Discretion has the meaning of acting on one's own authority and judgment. In law, discretion as to legal rulings, such as whether evidence is excluded at a trial, may be exercised by a judge. Some view discretion negatively, while some view it ...

. The group also branded the Philippine government's acceptance of Japan's apologies and its acceptance of monetary payment from the Japanese-financed

Asian Women's Fund , also abbreviated to in Japanese, was a fund set up by the Japanese government in 1994 to distribute monetary compensation to comfort women in South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Indonesia.Asian Women's Fund Online MuseuEs ...

as contrary to international law. The court ruled to dismiss the case in 2010, and a motion for reconsideration was filed by the group's legal team. The court reaffirmed its decision in 2014. It argued that the case is a diplomatic matter and should be handled by the executive branch.

References

{{reflist Comfort women 1997 establishments in the Philippines Organizations based in Pampanga