President Bongbong Marcos and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Images from AFP/Reuters
MANILA, Philippines — The deportation of Japanese nationals allegedly involved in operating a string of robberies in their country will not affect President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s visit to Japan next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Wednesday.
DFA Assistant Secretary Neal Imperial said it is also not expected to be raised during Marcos’ meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
He said the matter is a “consular” issue and is already being handled by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Japanese embassy here, and the Philippine Embassy in Japan in Tokyo.
“We don’t think it will affect in any way the visit of the president, and we do not expect it to be raised during his meeting with his counterpart,” Imperial said in a Palace briefing.
The DOJ earlier said it will try to expedite the deportation of the Japanese citizens, including the so-called “Luffy” who is the alleged mastermind of the robberies in Japan.
The Japanese individuals were allegedly involved in remotely running a string of robberies in Japan while detained in an immigration facility in Manila using an encrypted messaging app.
Comfort women
The issue of Filipino comfort women during World War II is also not expected to be raised during Marcos’ visit to Japan.
Imperial said that the matter is already considered “settled.”
“We don’t expect it to be raised but the position of the Philippines on this issue is that compensation claims by former comfort women is considered to be already settled as far as the government is concerned,” he said.
“All war-related claims are deemed to have been settled by our 1956 reparations agreement with Japan,” the DFA official added.
The Philippine government, however, “will not prevent private claims should such actions be pursued by victims on their behalf,” Imperial said.
“We will not stop the victims as this is an atrocious violence against women during the war,” he said.
More or less a thousand Filipino women were raped and enslaved by by Japanese troops during World War II.
It took decades after the end of the war before Rosa Henson came forward in the 1990s and became the first Filipino comfort woman to speak of her harrowing experience.
Through the years, other Filipino comfort women followed suit, but a considerable number of them still remain unknown after having effaced themselves and being turned away by their families after the war ended.
The group of now elderly women under Lila Pilipina, an organization of World War II comfort women, previously brought their longstanding battlecry to the streets of Manila to mark the International Day to Commemorate Victims of Japanese Wartime Military Sexual Slavery. EDV