Senate cites courage of Antiqueña 'comfort woman'
The Senate has passed a resolution lauding an Antiqueña who died last year for her courage and dedication to seek justice for Filipino women forced into sexual slavery during World War II.
In Senate Resolution No. 329 authored by Sen. Loren Legarda and passed on April 23, the legislators commended Tomasa Dioso Salinog or "Lola Masing."
"Her courage and determination to pursue justice (amid) challenges and old age are noble traits that should inspire Filipinos today and are worth emulating by future generations of our nation," the resolution read.
Salinog who died at 78 on April 6 last year was among the first Filipino women who came out in 1992 to demand justice for being among tens of thousands of Asian women abducted and turned into sex slaves by Japanese soldiers during the war.
The women, many of whom were in their teens, were abducted and kept in military garrisons and repeatedly raped by the Japanese soldiers.
A native of Pandan town in Antique, Salinog was 13 years old when she was abducted by soldiers and brought to a to a house near a garrison on Gobierno Street, where she was repeatedly raped. She managed to escape several months later but was captured and raped again.
Her ordeal ended only in 1945 after the liberation from Japanese occupation but like many other "comfort women," she only came out and tell her story decades later.
In April 1993, Salinog together with 17 other surviving Filipino "comfort women" filed a case with the Tokyo district court to demand for justice, apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government for the abuses committed against them during the war.
But the case was rejected by Japanese courts including the Supreme Court which dismissed it with finality in 2003.
Salinog was also among those who rejected the Asian Women’s Fund established by the Japanese government for Filipino, Korean, Taiwanese and Dutch women survivors. The fund which was raised from private contributions is seen by the victims as a means of the Japanese government to evade state responsibility for the crimes committed against the victims.
Her provincemates have honored her by putting up the Lola Masing Center for Culture and Peace at the old provincial capitol in the capital town of San Jose in Antique.
The center will serve as a a multimedia resource facility that will provide learning and instructional materials and services on culture, gender and peace studies.
The Senate resolution said the life and plight of Salinog "serves as a lesson for all governments and the international community that wars bring only violence and women become the most violated human being in times of war."