Around 100 Filipinos marched through downtown Manila on Sunday to honor victims of wartime sexual slavery and denounce fresh conflict in the Middle East, in a rally organizers said underscored the human cost of war.
The demonstration, led by advocacy group Lila Pilipina, also spotlighted the plight of surviving "comfort women" and linked their decades-long struggle for justice to broader calls for peace amid rising global tensions.
Data showed that more than 1,000 Filipino women were forced to serve as sex slaves during Japan's occupation of the Philippines during WWII. There are only a few surviving women victims, most of them sickly and poor in their 90s.
"I understand that the Japanese people also oppose these policies and actions that are being done by their own government officials. And Lila Pilipina has always said, echoing the statements of our Lolas (Filipino 'comfort women' survivors), there should never be another war of generation," said Lila Pilipina coordinator Sharon Cabusao-Silva.
During the event, the group condemned the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, warning that a widening conflict could have far-reaching economic and security consequences for the Philippines.
"So we support the struggles of the Iranian nation against this war of aggression, because in the past, as victims ourselves of wars of aggression by Japan, we know how it is to be attacked and invaded by a foreign power, destroying everything, killing everyone that it sees on site, and a destruction from which the nation really never developed even decades after the war. So we condemn all these attacks that the U.S. has been launching in the world today," Cabusao-Silva said.
Filipinos march in Manila to honor wartime victims, denounce Middle East conflict
Spanish health authorities on Friday identified a second monitored contact linked to the hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship MV Hondius after tracing a woman living in Catalonia who had shared a flight with a Dutch traveler died from the virus.
Spain's Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies said the woman is asymptomatic and was initially missed during contact tracing because of a seat change on the aircraft.
According to health authorities, the woman now meets the criteria for monitored contact under a newly approved national surveillance protocol and will remain under medical observation.
This came after the suspected case of hantavirus detected in Alicante. Spanish Secretary of State for Health Javier Padilla said on Friday that the health authorities had taken relevant measures.
In addition, Padilla confirmed that all 14 Spanish passengers aboard the MV Hondius had agreed to undergo voluntary quarantine measures in order to minimize the risk of further transmission.
The Dutch-operated expedition cruise ship, currently heading toward Spain's Canary Islands, has so far been linked to three deaths.
Padilla said a team from the Spanish Health Ministry would travel to Tenerife on Saturday ahead of the ship's expected arrival on Sunday.
Passengers are expected to disembark by small boats before being transferred under strict isolation measures. Spanish citizens aboard the vessel will be transported to Madrid for quarantine observation.
The British Health Security Agency announced Friday that a suspected hantavirus case has been detected on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, linked to the ongoing outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.
The vessel stopped at Tristan da Cunha between April 13 and 15.
Spain identifies second suspected hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak
