Redeployment and fraudulent misrepresentation of a pre-existing illness

 The redeployment of a seafarer cannot negate his entitlement to disability benefits on account of fraudulent misrepresentation of a pre-existing illness.

The   POEA employment contract  states that “a seafarer who knowingly conceals and does not disclose past medical condition, disability and history in the pre-employment medical examination {PEME) constitutes fraudulent misrepresentation and shall disqualify him from any compensation and benefits.”

The Supreme Court disregarded in the case of  Leoncio  v. MST Marine Services ( G.R. No. 230357, December 06, 2017)   the company’s  argument  that  the seafarer's employment is contractual in nature so that he is required to divulge, during each  PEME any pre-existing medical condition that he has ,including past medical history,  that can assist the company  in arriving at an accurate decision as to whether or not he is fit for employment. 

The seafarer  was first medically repatriated in 2001 due to Hypertension and Angina Pectoris.  He  was  later  declared "Fit for Sea Duty" after undergoing treatment by the company-designated physician. He was re-employed by the company.

He was again  repatriated  on 2014 due to an entirely different illness, i.e., Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) to severe distal Right Coronary Artery (RCA) with one drug-eluting stent.

The company discontinued the medication process and later denied liability   on the ground of his failure to declare during the PEME that he underwent a stenting procedure on  his LAD and LCX arteries in 2009.

The Supreme Court disregarded the employer’s argument  that  the seafarer’s employment is contractual as it stressed that  the knowledge acquired by  the manning agency regarding the medical condition of a seafarer is not automatically wiped out and obliterated upon the expiration of a contract and the execution of another.

Seafarers are considered contractual employees. Their employment is governed by the contracts they sign every time they are rehired and their employment is terminated when the contract expires. Their employment is contractually fixed for a certain period of time.

Instead, the knowledge and information previously acquired by  the manning agency is imputed to its principals. The employer  cannot  deny knowledge of seafarers medical condition and so refuse to pay his benefits.

The company  was already aware of the existence of the seafarer's coronary artery disease (CAD/HCVD) since 2001 but nonetheless reemployed and redeployed him to work for several more years.

The Supreme Court likewise ruled that the non-disclosures of medical procedures will not  disqualify a seafarer from entitlement to disability benefits.

The word "illness" refers  to a disease or injury afflicting a person's body while "condition" refers to the state of one's health.

The Court added that neither of these words refers to a medical procedure undergone by a seafarer in connection with an "illness or condition" (his CAD/HCVD)  which was already known by his employers as far back as 2001.

The stenting procedure  is  the "placement of a small wire mesh tube called a stent to help prop the artery open and decrease its chance of narrowing again."

The Supreme Court said that  the procedure was intended to improve his health condition and  was nothing more than an attempt to discontinue the steady progression of his illness or condition.

The seafarer's failure to reveal the said procedure does not amount to a concealment of a pre-existing "illness or condition" that can bar his claim for disability benefit and compensation.

The Court also stressed  the seafarer  was a "walking time bomb ready to explode towards the end of his employment days” due to the compensable heart condition  caused by the unusual strain of the seafarer's work. 

In Manansala,  v. Marlow Navigation Phils., Inc.  (G.R. No. 208314, August 23, 2017), the Supreme Court noted that the contract does  not merely speak of incorrectness,  falsity,  of incompleteness or inexactness, or failure to disclose the truth.  Rather, to negate compensability, it requires fraudulent misrepresentation,  that he  deliberately concealed it for a malicious purpose.

To amount to fraudulent misrepresentation, falsity must be coupled with intent to deceive and to profit from that deception. Honest mistakes on  a pre-existing illness during the PEME will not deprive seafarers of their right over disability or death benefits.

(Atty. Dennis Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786.)

To new lawyers: Serve the people

“Serve the people. Do not betray your humanity”.

Words that should guide the new lawyers according to   Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen  in his twitter account.

The Supreme Court released last week the results of the 2019 Bar exams, with a  passing rate of 27.36 percent, or  2,103 out of 7,685 examinees.

For me, my official entry to the legal profession happened twenty one years ago.

It was 1:30 a.m. .April 6, 1999, a Tuesday when I received a message via my beeper what could have been the best news in my life. It read: “Dennis, Congrats You are now officially Atty. Gorecho.”

 I was  among the lucky 1, 465 out examinees who passed  the 1998 bar exams,  or   39. 63, % of the total of 3,697  examinees, and considered as one of the highest passing rate.

The bar exams is considered one of the toughest and most difficult among the professional board exams, having one of the highest mortality rate. Passing is obviously not that easy, it would entail a series of factors.

The Philippine Bar Exams format has  remained the same  except for some facial revisions. It is still a handwritten exam taken in Metro Manila.

It will essentially tests  the aspirant’s ability to comprehend the problem, spot the issues, identify the legal provision and its basic interpretation.

The bar exams have a passing grade of 75%, which the en banc may adjust if needed.

It is also a yearly spectacle on the performance of law schools  measured on the most number of topnotchers or score the highest passing rate.

There are three steps in becoming a lawyer. First is passing the Bar.  Second  is taking the lawyer’s oath.  Third and final step  is the signing of the Roll of Attorneys.

The new lawyers  are  joining  the roll of attorneys during  this “unfamiliar and trying times” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work paradigms  such as social distancing and remote working have created a new workplace and  social dynamics where  human interactions are carried on to a large extent with the use of high technology.

The new crop of lawyers is coming in at an extraordinary time, when the health emergency “highlights the congestion, delays, inefficiencies and inequalities in our justice sector” says  Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Egon Cayosa.

Ultimately, being a good lawyer is a different thing. Passing the bar is not enough.

There will be those who will join the law offices for private practice while others   will go to  government, judiciary , politics or the academe.

And there’s alternative lawyering.

It is legal practice either individually or through legal resource organizations that work with the poor and marginalized groups, identities and communities towards their empowerment, greater access to justice, and building peace. 

Their  concerns normally involve  justice issues of the poor and marginalized groups in the Philippines, including women, labor, peasant, fisherfolk, children, urban poor, indigenous peoples, persons living with HIV-AIDS, local governance, and the environment.  

Alternative lawyers do often take on careers outside of the mainstream, but what differentiates their work is their commitment to a different route to, and conception of, justice. 

National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers president Edre Olalia  said that “the new lawyer must be bold, critical yet with a deep well of forbearance and most of all compassion and commitment especially to the ordinary people, the vulnerable, the persecuted and the victims of all sorts of injustice.”

Long before he became part   of the Supreme Court, I had the chance to understand what is  alternative lawyering through my coverage of legal  environmental issues , including then led by Justice  Leonen.

I  also had the chance to understand what is  alternative lawyering as a student volunteer of Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG)) led by Atty. Chel Diokno. His  father, former Senator Jose Diokno once said  “A lawyer must work in freedom; and there is no freedom when conformity is extracted by fear, and criticism silenced by force". 

Many alternative lawyers are guided by the words of former President Ramon Magsaysay:” Those who have less in life should have more in law” .

The poor who have less resources in relation to the rich, will often  have to  bank on  the law to safeguard their rights.  In building  a more accessible, inclusive and dynamic justice system, all remedies allowed by law should be completely exhausted for their protection. The semblance  of being given “more” in law is imperative  to equip them  the chance of equality which they do not enjoy.

Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are seasoned lawyers among others who passed their whole life in pursuit of emancipation of the human beings.

Lawyers, as professionals, are expected  to uphold the ethical and moral values that are said to be essential to the fabric that holds society together.

Justice Leonen also said “Discover your passion. Be patient and compassionate.”

Passion for the law is  dedication  to do what is right.

Kule is the monicker of Philippine Collegian, the official student publication of UP Diliman. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786).

Activism is not terrorism.

Activism is not terrorism.

Despite the   gloomy weather,  people flocked to the UP Diliman campus last June 12  for a  “Grand Mañanita” protest  to celebrate the country’s  122^nd Independence Day, notwithstanding law enforcers' warnings on violations of  quarantine regulations.

With proper social distancing, protesters wore face masks and  carried  placards denouncing the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 recently passed by legislators.

They also wore party hats and colorful costumes and brought with them   roses, balloons,  and food. There were  even the Voltes V cake and statue, and someone in a   T-Rex  costume.

The festive protest followed a  party theme,  patterned after the controversial birthday bash  of Metro Manila police chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas where  his men were allowed to celebrate his natal day amid prohibition of mass gathering.  He said   it was a “mañanita” or early morning celebration.  President Duterte has refused to fire or transfer Sinas.

In the movies, the bully kids  in the block who were uninvited to a  party will do anything in order to get even and disrupt the gathering.

Checkpoints were placed in major entrances to the university  in the guise of quarantine procedures but in essence were meant to intimidate and harass the participants.

Many viewed said checkpoints as tantamount to undermining the  UP-DND  accord signed in 1989 wherein the police and the military are not allowed to conduct operations within the vicinity of UP campuses without prior notice or approval of the university administration. They shall not interfere with the peaceful protest actions by UP constituents within the school’s premises.

This was a result of a long history of student disappearances and killings that took place within the vicinity of the campuses during that time.

The UP system,  adhering to the principles of  academic excellence,  nationalism and progressive thinking, is known for being the  center of student activism and dissent.  

My alma mater  UP College of Law released a strong  statement where it underscored that the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 poses a clear and present danger to constitutionalism and the rule of law.

It noted that some of its provisions are unconstitutional including (a)  those that pose a chilling effect on free expression and the right to organize and assemble, (b)  those that authorize executive orders for arrest and prolonged detention beyond what the law and the Rules of Court provide,  and (c) those that define broadly yet vaguely the acts that are criminalized. 

Some provisions, it added,    are experiments in suppressing lawful dissent and principled advocacy, particularly the exception to the proviso in section 4 that protects legitimate exercise of civil and political rights, the inclusion of a new offense of “Inciting to Terrorism.” 

 There are also  violations of the separation of powers specifically the   power given to the Anti-Terrorism Council, a purely executive body, to exercise the exclusively judicial power to order an arrest as well as to make a conclusion that a person is a terrorist (even on a prima facie basis) for purpose of arrest and detention. 

Some of the more important provisions protecting the citizenry against unwarranted arrests and charges have been removed, resulting in less, not more, checks and balances against a law that seeks to confer tremendous power on the executive branch.

Critics warned that the law will galvanize the propaganda tactic of "red-tagging"  that has often been directed towards individuals and organizations critical of the government,  who are labelled “communist” or “terrorist” regardless of their actual beliefs or affiliations.

It is seen as a political tactic that debilitates  Philippine democracy by stifling dissent   with a chilling effect on discourse and debate.

Red-tagging also  threatens the lives or safety of individuals.

The UP SAMASA alumni, one of my political organizations in UP,  said in a statement that the  “first victims of this weaponized law will be the Filipino activist, the legitimate oppositionist, the conscientious dissenter, the peaceful protester.”

The SAMASA said that the law “will authorize the state to criminalize almost every act of legitimate dissent and resistance as “terrorist,” to spy and eavesdrop into the private affairs and conversations of citizens, to arrest and detain them, and confiscate their property, all with impunity, all without any meaningful judicial intercession or review.”

Activism has been present throughout history, in every sort of political system.

Imagine a society where one could be considered a terrorist for criticizing the wrong actions and unfair policies that the government make.

Kule is the monicker of Philippine Collegian, the official student publication of UP Diliman. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786).

Comfort women and the insensitive red-tagging by the police force

Government officials, specifically members of the police force, must understand that one cannot claim to love the nation and yet promote historical ignorance.

The Manila Police District (MPD) came under fire last week after it reposted in its official Facebook account a meme by an anonymous group called Red Alert  red tagging GABRIELA and accusing it of manipulating the Lolas "for show".

The picture used was that of the rally organized on March 2 by the FlowersforLolas Campaign in front of the Japanese Embassy.

The rally was  part of commemoration of  women’s month  and  was meant to reiterate the victims' long-running demand for justice from the Japanese government.

Red Alert originally posted the meme with the statement “Ano daw? Justice for comfort women? Etong mga makakaliwang grupo naman na ito eh, kahit ano na lang maisip na pakulo. Pati Lola ginagamit ng mga destabilizer. Ang gyera ay naganap 80 taon na ang lumipas. Malamang mga bata pa kayo nung nangyari iyon. Comfort women na ba kayo noon?”

The FlowersforLolas Campaign, to which this author is a member,  is dismayed by the utter disrespect and gross ignorance of history exhibited by the MPD elements.

Led by Lila Filipina, I personally met some of the Lolas, including Lola Rosa Henson who was the first to come out, as a reporter in the late 90s when I covered their brave journey in telling the world about this inhuman practice of the Japanese during the war.

Due to their  tender age then , it was a painful experience for them to be  subjected to sexual slavery, rape and other forms of sexual violence during World War 2.

 The victims  have spent their lives in misery, having endured physical injuries, pain and disability, and mental and emotional suffering.

The Lolas are dying without  receiving  a formal apology and legal compensation from Japan. And yet the MPD has been a conduit in disrespecting their plight.

Artist Monique Wilson also  lambasted the MPD saying that such act is not only  completely and utterly imbecilic, but it is a grave affront to the Lolas who have suffered for over 70 years as former sex slaves of WW2, and the continuing neglect and dismissal of their fight for justice over all these long decades.

Issues like violence against women and historical injustices are not  matters for trivialization nor excuse for red-tagging, especially not from an institution known for its crude human rights record, she said.

“How gravely insulting to them to even make accusations that they can be ‘used’, and to belittle, diminish and question their experience,” Wilson said . “It is your duty to educate yourselves on the history of the Lolas, and immerse yourself in the continuing and deepening understanding and consciousness on violence against women issues and how to end  it. Not be the continuing perpetrators  of all forms of abuse.”

 “Take this time to reflect on your blatant fascist misogny. You are mandated to serve  and protect the people, not villify and cause harm and insult with your ignorance.”, Wilson said.

The MPD has taken down the post  last Thursday but it did not issue any apology to the Lolas.

Perhaps it is timely that the MPD must watch the ongoing Rody Vera’s   NANA ROSA play  at the UP Diliman for them to be properly educated of the comfort women issues.

It  is a heartwarming Dulaang UP play which seeks to remind the younger generation that Filipina comfort women existed.

 It pays homage to the courage they displayed when they went public with their story.

From their original number of more than 200 in the late 1990s, less than fifty  survivors are still alive, highlighting a sense of urgency  for them to receive a formal apology and legal compensation from Japan while their voices can still be heard.

It has been almost 75 years   since the war ended on August 15, 1945, and yet the Japanese government refuses to recognize its official accountability to the victims of sexual  slavery.  

Justice has not been given to the Lolas as their fight for unequivocal public apology, accurate historical inclusion, and just compensation continues up to this day.

The FlowersforLolas is an alliance of organizations that includes Lila Pilipina, the organization of Filipino Comfort Women; the Malaya Lolas who are victims of rape by invading Japanese soldiers in Candaba, Pampanga; the Association of Descendants of WaChi guerrillas who fought alongside American soldiers and Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese, and MEMORARE Foundation, composed of descendants of American victims of WW2. Also among its members are prominent individuals who have long been involved in the issue and other patriotic causes.

Kule is the monicker of Philippine Collegian, the official student publication of UP Diliman. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786).

First Quarter Storm, Voltes V and Martial Law

I was born in the same period when  the First Quarter Storm (FQS)  was  associated with anti-Martial Law protests , mostly led by students and faculty of   the University of the Philippines in Diliman, the same academe  where I later  spent a decade of my student life.

Back in the 1970s, many members of the  UP community participated in protests against the reign of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, prompting the declaration of Martial Law in 1972.

FQS  was a period of civil unrest with  series of demonstrations, protests, and marches against the Marcos administration mostly organized by students, which took place during the "first quarter of the year 1970” or  from January 26 to March 17, 1970.

On January 26, 1970,  Marcos delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the old legislative building in Manila as the 7th Congress opened. About 50,000 demonstrators gathered at the Burgos Drive to demand for reforms in the Constitution.

While  Marcos was on his way out, along with wife Imelda, demonstrators booed him and threw sticks and placards at him and his entourage.  

A cardboard coffin was swiftly carried by the students from hand to hand and hurled toward the presidential party, where it landed close to the limousine. The cardboard coffin symbolized the death of democracy.

Security forces, fearing a bomb, hurriedly picked up the coffin and threw it back toward the students who caught it and returned it with greater force, together with a papier mache crocodile that symbolized, among other things, the members of Congress. There was also a shower of empty bottles, rocks and other projectiles.

Anti-riot security forces attacked the demonstrators after Marcos left the scene which caused injuries to several demonstrators.  

Violent dispersals of ensuing   FQS protests were among the first watershed events in which large numbers of Filipino students of the 1970s were radicalized against the Marcos administration.

To commemorate the FQS  50th anniversary, the gates of the Palma Hall, once called Arts and Science building,  in UP Diliman is adorned by a wonderful art piece  of UP  Samasa colleague Toym Leon Imao.

"Nagbabadyang Unos" (the Gathering Storm)  is his  recent art installation   which seemed to consecrate the steps and the Palma Hall lobby that served as venue  to many protest actions and discussion groups.

“We reclaim "red" as a color of passion, courage, love, and sacrifice for our country,  we dismantle the current administration's weaponized "red tagging" and remind this generation through the arts what happened 50 years ago with the First Quarter Storm that planted the seeds of ferment and dissent that led to the toppling of a dictator.” Toym said.

Hovering above it was the design centerpiece of red -painted discarded arm chairs formed like a cloud which is a reminder of the chairs used to barricade the UP Diliman streets during the FQS.

Toym also had  artworks  that reveal how the Japanese cartoon “Voltes V “ is inseparable from the discussion on martial law and the Marcos  regime.  

The cartoon series was about an alien race of horned humans from the planet Boazania out to conquer Earth. It was up to Voltes V to defeat the Boazanians’ giant robots, known as beast fighters, sent to destroy the planet.

Voltes V  may not be provocative and radical in the traditional sense but its story does carry with it the idea of  revolution and resistance. Boazania was also under dictatorial rule from a despotic emperor, who faced an uprising from Boazanians who were discriminated against and enslaved simply because they had no horns.

In 1979, shortly before the series finale, Marcos issued a directive banning Voltes V and other similarly-themed anime series due to concerns about "excessive violence".

The directive also led to speculations at the time that the series was also taken off the air due to its revolutionary undertones.

In 2012, Marcos' son Bongbong defended his father's decision to ban Voltes V, stating that parents before were worried about the excessive violence in the show, so Marcos pulled the show and other robot-based animated series from television to appease their demands.

Depicted in many of  Toym’s artworks are images of Voltes V’s villain characters from Planet Boazania that tried to conquer Earth. It is symbolic of how the military tried to control the freedom of Filipinos in the past.

“Let’s Volt In!” is the popular line associated with Voltes V, which is timely  appropriate with the return of the Marcoses in Philippine politics.  

***

 Kule is the monicker of Philippine Collegian, the official student publication of UP Diliman. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786).

Comfort woman Lola Felicidad dies without seeing justice from Japan government

The survivors of the heinous  sexual crimes the Japanese committed are dying without  receiving  a formal apology and legal compensation from Japan.

Lola Felicidad delos Reyes, who is a member of Lila Filipina,   died last week  of pneumonia at the Labor Hospital in Quezon City at the age of 92. She was born on November 22, 1928 in Masbate.

Sometime in 1943, Felicidad was only fourteen years old when she was made to sing in front of Japanese soldiers along with her other classmates. Impressed with her performance, she was told that she will receive a gift at the garrison.

However, when she reached the place, she was taken inside a room.   Japanese soldiers forced her down onto the ground. When she struggled, another punched her in the face while another grabbed her legs and held them apart. Then they took turns to rape her.

Lola Felicing did not understand what they were doing to her since  she  had no knowledge about sex. She did not even have her menstruation.

When she begged them to stop, they just laughed.  Whenever she struggled or screamed, they would punch and kick her.

Confused,  frightened, tired and in pain, she drifted in and out of consciousness. For the next three days a succession of soldiers abused her until she was allowed to go home because she became very ill.

Her older sister had been taken by the Japanese just the year before who  died in a comfort house.

Lola Felicing kept silent for almost 40 years.

It was in the late 1990s that she came out as part of Lila Filipina  to tell the world about this inhuman practice of the Japanese during the war  with the hope that such an ordeal will never happen again to any woman.

The demise of Lola Felicing is a sad reality that the Filipino comfort women and those forced into sexual violence by Japanese invasion and occupation troops during World War II are dying without seeing justice.

It has been almost 75 years   since the war ended on August 15, 1945, and yet the Japanese government refuses to recognize its official accountability to the victims of sexual  slavery.  

Justice has not been given to women such as Lola Felicing as their fight for unequivocal public apology, accurate historical inclusion, and just compensation continues up to this day.

To date, the    lifesize statue of two women at Caticlan, Malay, Aklan is the  last remaining   statue that symbolizes the struggles of the Lolas.     

The statue was installed on February 5, 2019 and    stands on the property owned by the family of women’s rights activist Nelia Sancho, who accompanied Lola Felicing in testifying before international venues in the late 1990s.

“The purpose of the statue is to show that there was a war crime in World War II, and that is military sexual slavery. And it is unsettled so we don’t want that it is forgotten. It’s because (the victims) are now old, starting to passed away, and with their death, we don’t want the issue to die down with them,” Sancho said.

Even if it is a reminder of a painful past, the   remaining statue honors the memory, courage and resilience of these Filipino women.

On  December 2017,  Tulay Foundation’s   2-meter-high “Lola” statue of an unnamed woman wearing a traditional Filipino dress, blindfolded, with hands clutched to her chest,  was installed along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

The Lola statue represented Filipino women’s dignity and stands as “a reminder that wars of aggression must always be opposed, and that sexual slavery and violence should never happen again to any woman, anywhere at any time.”

Four months later   the statue was dismantled under cover of darkness on April 27, 2018 by the DPWH,  allegedly for a drainage improvement project, but seen as  submission to protests from Japan.

Issues of historical revisionism and the government’s submission to Japanese policy were raised by concerned groups led by the Flowers-for-Lolas as they condemned the removal of the statue. President Duterte earlier remarked the state would not want to “antagonize” other countries.

Unfortunately, the statue is now missing.

Despite several follow-ups on the formal turn-over of the LOLA  statue back to Tulay for its reinstallation last  August  2019,  its artist Jonas Roces failed to do so. He  later told Tulay that the Lola statue was taken by unidentified men from his art studio in Cainta Rizal.

Despite the absence of the Lola  statue, a new metal historical marker dedicated to  the Lolas  was unveiled  at the Baclaran church.

Another Lola statue,   a young woman with fists resting on her lap,  has been removed from the  Catholic-run Mary Mother of Mercy  shelter for the elderly and the homeless in San Pedro, Laguna, only two days after its unveiling  January of last year.

From their original number of more than 200 in the late 1990s, less than fifty  survivors are still alive, highlighting a sense of urgency  for them to receive a formal apology and legal compensation from Japan while their voices can still be heard.

 Kule is the monicker of Philippine Collegian, the official student publication of UP Diliman. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786).

Bahay na Pula and the Malaya Lolas

The Bahay na Pula in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, with its red  walls almost gone,  still   stands as   a house with a dark and  painful history.

Red is a very emotionally intense color of fire and blood as it is associated with war, death  and danger.  

Built in 1929, it is a big, ancient two-floor house owned by the Ilusorio family standing solitary on a  hacienda with tall, huge tamarind, camachile and duhat trees that  grew around it

It was made largely out of wood and painted red on the outside, giving it its name.

Lola Lita Vinuya, 80 years old, narrated to  the group Flowers for Lolas  the wartime ordeal they suffered during the Second World War.

In Nov. 23, 1944,  the Imperial Japanese Army  attacked Mapaniqui in Candaba, Pampanga a suspected bailiwick of Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (HukBaLaHap).

Communities were bombed, houses were looted and burned.

Filipino guerillas caught by the soldiers were starved, tied together, then burned alive. 

Women were forced to watch under the sun   the men and boys being  publicly tortured, mutilated, and slaughtered by the Japanese army. Their sexual organs were severed and forced  into the mouths of the victims. When the massacre was over, the corpses were thrown into a large pit and set ablaze.

The women were then  ordered to walk  to the Bahay na Pula in San Ildefonso, Bulacan which became a barracks  where they  became victims of military sexual violence and slavery.  Upon reaching the mansion, the soldiers dragged the women, ranging from 13 to early 20s, into dark rooms and took turns raping them.

Japanese soldiers systematically raped the women as part of the destruction of the village.

Worse, some of the women were taken to San Miguel, Bulacan where they were imprisoned   for at least three months at the “comfort stations.”

As a result of the actions of their Japanese tormentors, the victims  have spent their lives in misery, having endured physical injuries, pain and disability, and mental and emotional suffering.

The women broke their silence in August 1996, four years after Maria Rosa Luna Henson made public her ordeal as a “comfort woman.”

The Malaya Lolas was then  established which  initially had 90 members. Sadly, more than two decades  later, their present number dwindled to 29  due to deaths of its members.

The Malaya Lolas claim that since 1998, they have approached the Executive Department through the DOJ, DFA, and OSG, requesting assistance in filing a claim against the Japanese officials and military officers who ordered the establishment of the “comfort women” stations in the Philippines.

However, officials of the Executive Department declined to assist the Malaya Lolas, and took the position that the individual claims of the comfort women for compensation had already been fully satisfied by Japan’s compliance with the Peace Treaty between the Philippines and Japan.

In 2014, the Supreme Court  finally denied the petition filed by Malaya Lola to declare the Philippine government guilty of grave abuse of discretion for refusing to espouse their claims for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Court ruled that while it commiserates with the sufferings of the women of Mapanique, this, allegedly, is one instance where there is a violation of right but bereft of a legal remedy. 

The Court also said that while rape is prohibited, there is no non-derogable obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish those who committed mass rape as a war crime. 

During the recent visit of the Flowers for Lolas, the women  sung a song  in the style of “pangangaluluwa,” hymn-offerings to the dead with the lyrics “At nang magsawa na kami’y pinawalan, Halos ang hininga’y ibig nang pumanaw. Sa laki ng hirap na pinagdaanan, Sira na ang isip pati na katawan.”

The women are still hoping in their  quest for justice.

 A statue of a Filipina comfort woman along Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard in Manila was removed on April 27, 2018 by the  Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) allegedly for a drainage improvement project.

Issues of historical revisionism and the government’s  submission to Japanese policy  were  raised by concerned groups led by the Flowers for Lolas   as they condemned the removal  of the statue.  President Duterte earlier remarked the state would not want to "antagonize" other countries.

At present,  the Bahay na Pula has been stripped of its narra floors and walls, as well as its wrought-iron windows and doors. Still, the memories of the horrors inside the house remained fresh for the women.

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 Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, email info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786).