Migrante Slams Racial Slur

30 March 2009
PRESS RELEASE

MIGRANTE SLAMS RACIAL SLUR

The largest umbrella alliance of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) groups’ worldwide expressed outrage over a racist article published in the Hong Kong Magazine online on March 27 depicting the Philippines as a “nation of servants” and demanded a public apology for the racial slur from the writer and from the magazine where the article appeared.

Migrante also demanded for an immediate pull-out of the said magazine issue from the shelves and online and called for the government to declare Mr. Tsao “persona non grata.”

“The article written by Mr. Chip Tsao smacks of unqualified racial bias that vilifies the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in Hong Kong and puts them in danger of persecution and harm. We demand no less than a public apology from Mr. Tsao and from the Hong Kong Magazine for allowing this bigoted garbage to appear on its pages,” stated Gina Esguerra, Secretary-General of Migrante International.

On March 27, 2009, the article “War At Home” appeared on the pages of the Hong Kong Magazine and on its online site. Mr. Tsao wrote: “The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. 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, in his article, even went to the extent of suggesting holding Filipina domestic helpers in HK as “hostages” should RP-China hostilities break out over the Spratly issue and that a “state of emergency” has in fact been declared in some of HK homes. He said Filipinas under their employ are made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly every time they hear the word “Spratly.”

“Mr. Tsao’s diatribes is indeed a cause for alarm for overseas Filipinos and their families especially in this time of intensifying global financial crisis where bigotry and racial intolerance are customarily whipped up by host governments in a desperate attempt to evade responsibility on the crisis and to use the army of migrant workers as their convenient scapegoats,” stressed Esguerra.

“We are thus urging the Philippine government not to take this latest slap on our national dignity sitting down. We are also holding this government doubly accountable for its labor export policy that has sold our brightest minds as cheap commodities to foreign employers,” concluded Esguerra. ###

Reference:
Gina Esguerra,
Secretary General, 09058361412