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.”
Asia City Publishing which publishes the “HK Magazine,” said: “The publishers and editors of the magazine wish to apologize unreservedly for any offense that may have been caused by Chip Tsao‘s column dated March 27. We note that Filipinos have often been unfairly treated in Hong Kong and that they make an important contribution to this community.”
They added they considered the Tsao column as “politically incorrect” because the magazine has long championed the rights of Filipinos working in the former British colony.
Tsao has not personally issued an apology but reports quoted his colleagues as saying he was surprised and taken aback by the strong and angry reaction that greeted his column which, he insisted, was satirical.
Despite the apology, various quarters, particularly politicians, government officials and militant groups, continued to rant and rage against Tsao and his column,
Commissioner Marcelino Libmanan, the chief of the Bureau of Immigration, revealed that he already ordered the blacklisting of Tsao from entering the country.
Libmanan’s order was apparently in reaction to the demand of Migrante International, the country’s largest alliance of overseas workers, that the government declare Tsao, also a television and radio host, “persona non grata” in the Philippines.
For his part, opposition Senator Francis Escudero urged the Philippine government to file a damage suit against Tsao in order to defend the dignity of the Filipinos instead of filing a diplomatic protest.
In Malacanang, a spokesman said Tsao should apologize to Filipinos even as Philippine consulate officials in Hong Kong and embassy officials in Beijing are deciding how best to address the issue.
Congressmen Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City in the Visayas and Ruffy Biazon of suburban Muntinlupa City in Metro Manila, said that if Tsao meant to be satirical, he went to far.
“Instead of insulting China’s policy, he insulted a nation,” the two lawmakers said.
However, opposition leader and Mayor Jejomar Binay of suburban Makati City, Metro Manila insisted it should be the Arroyo administration that should apologize instead to the Filipinos for its failure to provide meaningful especially to Filipino women.
Binay blamed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for not giving enough options to Filipino women who settle for being domestic workers in other countries because of lack of jobs in the Philippines.
Tsao had written in his column that the recent threat of the Philippines to send gunboats to defend its claim in the disputed Spratly island group in the South China Sea was “beyond reproach.”
China has laid claim to the whole of the resource-rich Spratlys, which is also being disputed, aside from the Philippines, by neighboring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The reason, Tsao wrote, was that more than 130,000 Filipinos were working in Hong Kong for as little as HK$3,580 a month as domestic helpers.
Tsao pointed out: “As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles as our master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.”
He said he has given his own maid, a Filipina, a harsh lecture, warning her to tell her people that the Spratlys belong to China if she wanted a salary increase in 2010.
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A friend of mine shared an interesting opinion regarding this matter. He said that instead of declaring people who berate the Philippines as persona non-grata and ban them from visiting our country, we should give them a free ticket and accommodation to visit us. We should show them how beautiful the country is, how progressive it is and how much we are striving to become a better country despite the challenges that befall us. Let’s show them how wrong they are about us. Let them appreciate us better and convert them into friends instead of permanent enemies. I thought the idea makes more sense than showing the world we cannot take criticism.