February 15, 2021
The Filipina Comfort Women monument in the Manila Bay that was removed in 2018 and later disappeared. Kaisa
A two-metre-high bronze statue memorialising the Filipino women forced to become sex slaves by Japan ’s military during World War II has gone missing in Manila, underscoring the country’s challenges in balancing diplomatic relations with its largest source of development aid amid calls to hold Tokyo accountable for this wartime atrocity.
The “Filipina Comfort Women” monument was hurriedly dismantled by the Philippine government on April 28, 2018 ahead of the May 3 Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual summit that year.
President Rodrigo Duterte said the next day that while the monument was “freedom of expression … it is not the policy of government to antagonise other nations” and it should therefore be placed elsewhere.