The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and the Asia-Wide Campaign against US-Japanese Domination and Aggression of Asia marched to the Japanese embassy in Pasay City last 8 July to condemn Japan and the Philippines for signing the military agreement Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA).
Bayan emphasized that the agreement furthers the US imperialist’s “pivot in Asia” in which Japan and the Philippines are used to serve as “partners” in its efforts to contain rival imperialist China.
“The constant warmongering by the US escalates tensions in the region and increases the dangers of an open military conflict erupting in the region,” the group added.
The Filipino people should be concerned about Japan’s desire to expand its military presence without fully addressing and providing justice for its wartime victims, “particularly the horrific system of comfort women that devastated countless lives across Asia,” the group said.
Women members of Gabriela and Lila Pilpina, a group representing comfort women and their struggle for justice, joined the action at the embassy.
For Lila Pilipina, the return of Japan’s armed forces to the country and the Philippines’ agreement for military activities is a great injustice. Japan has yet to be held accountable for its crimes during World War II, and there has been no justice for the comfort women, but here they are again.
According to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) International Office (NDFP IO), the RAA “betrays the victims of Japanese war crimes against the Filipino people during World War II and dangerously positions the country on the front lines of war.”
“The Japan-Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement marks a dangerous precedent, undermining prospects for a peaceful resolution of territorial conflicts in the region while stoking the flames of war. The path to just and lasting peace lies not in the buildup of military personnel and materiel that serve US war designs against Asia,”the NDFP IO concluded.
