{"id":162122,"date":"2018-04-30T00:40:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T04:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=162122"},"modified":"2018-04-30T00:40:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T04:40:43","slug":"duterte-says-comfort-women-issue-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/30\/duterte-says-comfort-women-issue-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte says comfort women issue is over"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his speech upon his arrival at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City at dawn of April 29, 2018,\u00a0 RENE LUMAWAG\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the criticisms that were thrown to the government for the removal of the seven-foot bronze statue depicting a blindfolded Filipina dubbed as the \u2018comfort women,\u2019 the President commented that the issue is already over as it will only bring back pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can place it somewhere else if somewhere else. If you want to place it in a private property, fine, but do not use \u2013 because that issue, in so far as I am concerned, tapos na iyan<\/em> (that is over),\u201d President Rodrigo Roa Duterte said in his speech in Davao City on April 29, Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Japanese has paid dearly for that. Iyong<\/em> (The) reparation started many years ago. Huwag na lang natin insultuhin\u00a0[ang<\/em> Japan<\/em>]\u00a0(Let us not insult Japan)\u2026 it is not the policy of [the] government to antagonize other nations,\u201d he further defended.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, bringing up the victimization of the comfort women during the Japanese colonization will only bring back pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cMasakit kasi na ulit-ulitin<\/em> (It is just really painful whenever it is brought up again and again) and you start to imagine how they were treated badly,\u201d Duterte continued.<\/p>\n

While this was the Chief Executive\u2019s stand, a political analyst that this move actually took away the dignity of the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit dignity in memorializing it, and we take it away from them,\u201d Atty. Tony La Vi\u00f1a said in an interview with ANC on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He said that he does not understand the reason of the removal, because it seemed like the government was \u201chiding\u201d the erection of the monument, ashamed of its memorialization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not be. We should not shame ourselves. We should not shame the comfort women,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

La Vi\u00f1a said that this removal is the \u201cbiggest insult\u201d the victims could ever receive.<\/p>\n

While the President touched Japan in his defense to the removal, different government institutions related to the statue\u2019s removal like the Public Works Department and the Manila City Hall said that the statue was only removed because of drainage works.<\/p>\n

In January, Kyodo News reported that Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda expressed disappointment on the statue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s regrettable for this kind of statue to suddenly appear,\u201d Noda was reportedly telling Duterte during her courtesy call.<\/p>\n

The \u201cFilipino Comfort Women\u201d statue was unveiled on Roxas Boulevard baywalk just a few kilometers from the Japanese embassy, erected on December 8 last year.<\/p>\n

The words \u201cThis monument is a reminder of the Filipino women who were victims of abuses during the occupation of the Japanese forces from 1942-1945. It took a while before they came out into the open to tell their stories\u201d was engraved on the statue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the criticisms that were thrown to the government for the removal of the seven-foot bronze statue depicting a blindfolded …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":162093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[5917,2444],"class_list":["post-162122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-comfort-women","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}