Filipina Comfort Women statue | Photo via Bulatlat.com
A few days ago, when the attacks were escalating in Ukraine, I came across a photo that caught my attention: one of the Independence Monuments in Kyiv. The monument depicts Berehynia, a Slavic deity known as the “protectress of the home” and was built to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the independence of Ukraine in 2001. Towering high above the city, the Angel provides comfort amidst the chaos, a steady reminder of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty, and a hopeful promise of peace.
The monument reminded me of our own EDSA Shrine, which is most known for the sculpture of the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of EDSA, Queen of Peace. With the iconic statue towering over one of the busiest points of Metro Manila’s major highway, it is impossible to miss the Shrine when visiting the Philippine capital. A little-known fact is that a Filipina, Virginia Ty-Navarro, also sculpted our Lady of EDSA. The bronze sculpture shows the Blessed Virgin Mary clad in a flowing robe with her arms outstretched and her Immaculate Heart exposed—a symbol of peace to commemorate the nonviolent People Power Revolution.
When talking about famous historical landmarks, people would probably think of the Rizal monument in Luneta or the many other statues of Rizal, Lapu-Lapu, or Andres Bonifacio all over the country. Apart from the Our Lady of EDSA, however, there aren’t many female sculptures or monuments that come to mind when people think of famous Filipino monuments. As International Women’s Month, March is as good a time as any to explore the culturally significant female monuments in the country, especially those that have repeatedly been glossed over or, even worse, erased from history.
One interesting group of sculptures is the La Madre Filipina. Four La Madre statues were built to “guard” the Jones Bridge in Manila in 1920. The four statues represent democracy, justice, gratitude, and progress following the semi-autonomy given to the Philippines by the Jones Law of 1916. World War II destroyed one of the statues; another one was displayed in Rizal Park for some time. You can find two others at the entrance of the Court of Appeals. In 2019, the La Madre that was previously in Rizal Park and a replica of the one destroyed during the war were reinstalled in the Jones Bridge after the bridge’s restoration.
Another statue of historical significance (and not without controversy) is the Filipina Comfort Women monument. In 2017, Kaisa Heritage Foundation headed a project to memorialize Filipino women forced into sex slavery during World War II (popularly known as “comfort women”) through a statue depicting a blindfolded woman. However, shortly after its installation along Roxas Boulevard, the Department of Public Works and Highways removed the statue. The removal came suspiciously close to an Asian Development Bank summit scheduled the same year.
The Austrian writer Robert Musil once declared that “there is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument.” This invisibility is aggravated by systemic oppression against women and the persistence of patriarchy, often rendering monuments such as the La Madre sculptures and Filipina Comfort Women forgotten. But still, despite attempts of erasure, they remain.
Even the famous EDSA sculpture, once criticized for being made out of too thin materials for the typhoons that frequent the Philippines, managed to survive for decades without being shattered.
Such is the beauty and importance of monuments, however invisible they may be: they are enduring remnants of people and events that deserve to be remembered.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jess Pacis is a regular columnist for Know Your Philippines in our Lifestyle section. She is a writer and development worker based in the Philippines.
