Time to heal the scars of war and move on

When I was in Manila before Christmas, my good friend, Mr. Tourism Robert “Bobby” Joseph, president of the Network of Independent Travel and Allied Services Philippines (NITAS) told me of a brewing issue that erupted last Dec. 8 when the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) unveiled a two-meter high bronze statue of Comfort Women in the Baywalk, along Roxas Boulevard.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the same area where stands the statue of my mentor and dear friend, the late Philippine STAR publisher Maximo V. Soliven. Sanamagan! Manong Max must be turning in his grave that there is a statue of comfort women close to his statue because I’m sure this issue too would certainly annoy him. The question is… why did the NHCP give importance to this ugly part of our history? We are aggrieved and distraught that this happened to the comfort women at least 75 years ago.

However, the NHCP never even cared to erect a statue of an American civilian, later installed as an American officer, Col. James Cushing who fought with his Filipino guerrillas in Cebu where he was king, president, governor and mayor of Cebu during World War II and kept the Japanese occupiers at bay with his constant guerrilla attacks. No sir… no statue for Col. James Cushing, or one for the Cebuano guerrillas who fought with him!

Sir Bobby Joseph pointed out, “This ‘Comfort Women Statue’ will rekindle the pain, hatred, and anger of some Filipinos with the Japanese when in fact it was already patched up and resolved. We have to move on and let love, understanding, cooperation, support and protect the dignity of our fellowmen especially Japanese who are very supportive of us. We now enjoy the strong relationship initiated by President Duterte and Prime Minister Abe and the Royal Family of Japan.” I fully agree! So why is this happening to us today?

NHCP Chairman Rene Escalante explained to the media that the monument was erected to preserve the memory of the suffering of the “comfort women” when the Philippines was a Japanese colony from 1942 to 1945, where a thousand women were forced to be sex slaves by the Japanese. If you ask me, this is a stupid reason to erect a statue on something time should have already forgotten. But like I said, the hardy souls that risked their lives to fight the Japanese occupiers, the NHCP has no statues for them.

So the question is… do we need statues to remind us of this ugly affair in our past history? Apparently Gabriela’s Women’s Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas believes it is right to instill in today’s generation the dark time we went under Japanese occupation. When the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) requested the NHCP to explain the process and circumstances that led to the building of the monument, Rep. Rosas was enraged.

What can we expect from this Gabriela Representative who is allied with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). We Catholics are taught to love and forgive and even pray for those who oppress us. But the commies within us do not want to move forward and live in the past! By now the scars of war have already healed…but if the Gabriela gets their way (and they seem to be doing this efficiently) those scars must stay in our hearts. This is no different from the Commies scaring us about Martial Law which ended 30 years ago.

When Pres. Duterte declared Martial Law in Marawi when the Maute terrorists attacked Marawi City… the Commies kept on reminding us of the Martial Law that we booted out 30 years ago, which I recall the Filipino nation did without the help of the Communists! Fast forward 75 years later and the Japanese, our former enemy has become one of our best friends and infrastructure investors in Asia.

Japan who was America’s greatest enemy in World War II has also become America’s biggest and strongest ally in Asia. If I would write the number of infrastructure projects that the Japanese government donated to the Philippines, I will certainly ran out of space for this column. This is why Bobby Joseph said, “We cannot afford to lose our friendship with the Japanese just because of the comfort women statue, thus, we have to remove it to foster harmony and good will.”

That good will was shown by the Japanese to Pres. Duterte at the end of October last year when no less than Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko invited Pres. Duterte and his partner Honeylet Avanceña to the Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo. Now not many world leaders who come to Japan on an official visit get to be invited in the Imperial Palace. This is how things have changed with our relations with Japan in the last 75 years.

Perhaps Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada should spearhead the removal of this statue. How would Erap feel if the NHCP erected a statue to remind the Filipino people of Erap being removed from the Presidency so we won’t ever forget that ugly part of our history?

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