MANILA, Philippines – A militant woman lawmaker demanded an apology from a Hong Kong-based magazine which carried a bylined article describing the Philippines as a “nation of servants.”
Congresswoman Risa Hontiveros of the party list group Akbayan took strong offense at the writer’s description and said the publication, “HK Magazine” of the Asia City Publishing Group based in Hong Kong, should immediately apologize to the Philippine government for the offensive and defamatory comments.
The article, which carried the byline of a male Chinese writer Chip Tsao, was in protest against the Philippines claim to the disputed and resource-rich Spratly islands group in the South China Sea.
Other neighboring nations, like Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, are also staking their claim to parts of the Spratlys but it is China which is claiming full ownership of the territory historically and culturally.
In his article, Tsao said Beijing should not bow to the Philippines because “there are more than 130,000 Filipino maids working on a HK$3,500 a month cheap labor in Hong Kong.”
Tsao added: “As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.”
Tsao himself admitted in the article that he employs a Filipina maid but said that if war erupts between China and the Philippines over the Spratlys, he would not hesitate to dismiss her, claiming he does not want to commit treason for “sponsoring an enemy of the state.”
He added he sternly warned his maid that if she wants to have her wages increased in 2010, she should tell the other Filipinos in Statue Square that the whole of the Spratlys belongs to China.
Statue Square is the main venue and popular meeting place for the thousands of mostly Filipino domestic helpers during their off-days usually a Sunday.
Hontiveros went tit-for-tat as she resented the Tsao article and used equally strong language in demanding an apology for the slur against the Filipinos.
“This disgusting, derogatory and vile remark can only come from dim-witted and mediocre writing,” the outspoken Hontiveros pointed out. “The magazine should apologize straightaway. The article reflects the kind of attitude that promotes abuses against Filipina workers.”
She added Tsao’s story should not have been published due to its defamatory nature characterized by racial discrimination against Filipinos, in general, and the Filipino domestic helpers, in particular.
She told Tsao to leave the Spratlys issue to the diplomats and writing to real writers because he has neither the competence nor talent in foreign affairs and writing as she stressed:
“When you make fun of a particular group, you expose them to abuses. Wittingly or unwittingly, you end up supporting acts of intolerance and abuses.”
According to Hontiveros, Filipinos are not asking for political correctness, just professional treatment.
Hontiveros explained that domestic work is a decent job which is not just done by hired Filipina domestic workers but has also been the function of mothers in Hong Kong, China and elsewhere in the world.
In this light, by insulting the Filipina domestic workers, Tsao has also insulted his own mother, Hontiveros concluded.
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[...] MANILA, Philippines – The publisher of a Hong Kong-based magazine apologized for the slur that one of its featured columnists has committed by describing the Philippines as a “nation of servants.” [...]
[...] Recently, a Hong Kong-based columnist Chip Tsao likewise apologized publicly for calling the Philippines “a nation of servants.” [...]