MANILA - Another Filipino “comfort woman” has died, the group Lila Pilipina announced early Monday, days after the plight of victims of sexual abuse by Japanese soldiers during World War II made headlines anew following a resolution from a United Nations panel.

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Hilaria Bustamante, 97, passed away on Saturday evening in her home in Cavite, Sharon Cabusao-Silva, who represents Lila Pilipina (League of Filipino Grandmothers), told ABS-CBN News.

“She died of old age. Wala naman siyang diagnosed (illness),” Cabusao-Silva said.

Bustamante is among “several plaintiffs who sued the Japanese government in 1993 at a Tokyo District Court” over the Japanese wartime military sexual violence in the Philippines, Lila Pilipina said.

She was 16 when Japanese soldiers brought her to a garrison, imprisoned her there for more than a year, and “repeatedly raped” her, she had disclosed in a previous gathering.

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"Comfort women” is a euphemism for women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during the war. An estimated 1,000 women in the Philippines were said to have fallen victims to the system.

Bustamante made public her experience in 1995. Three years later, she received a letter of apology from then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, and atonement from the Asian Women’s Fund.

But she had asserted that the Japanese government should make a formal public apology and official compensation.

“I feel sad anytime a lola dies. But we cannot stop the march of time, kaya all the more dapat ibigay ng Japan ang matagal nang hinging apology, compensation at historical inclusion,” Cabusao-Silva said.

(That’s why all the more Japan should apologize, offer compensation, and include the wartime sexual abuse in their historical records.)

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She shared that even though Bustamante was already feeble, she was responsive to music and could still sing when they last interacted with each other about a month ago.

In light of the recent call of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for the Philippine government to provide sexual abuse survivors full reparation, Cabusao-Silva said, “Matagal nang dapat kumilos ang Philippine government para hingin ang hustisya sa Japan at ibigay din ang official recognition sa mga biktima.”

(The Philippine government’s action to seek justice from Japan and grant the victims official recognition are long overdue.)

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Lila Pilipina originally grouped 174 women who publicly said in the 1990s they had suffered at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation of the Philippines.

Another group of comfort women, called the Malaya Lolas (Free Grandmothers), consisted of 90 original members who suffered abuses from Japanese forces who stormed Mapaniqui, Candaba, Pampanga on Nov. 23, 1944.

Several lolas have since died. - with report from Kyodo News

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