Palace defends Filipino domestic workers vs ‘homewrecker’ remarks
“Fallacious.” That’s how Malacañang described remarks brought about by faulty reasoning, as in the case of a lawmaker from Hong Kong who called Filipino domestic helpers “homewreckers.”
“I think that that lawmaker, by using just one example, and to conclude that Filipino domestic workers are all home wreckers is certainly fallacious,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told media.
He was referring to Regina Ip, a Hong Kong politician, who wrote about how women have complained to her that “Filipino domestic helpers seduce their husbands.”
READ: HK politician hit over slur on PH maids
“Obviously that’s not true,” Lacierda said.
Ip drew flak from the Filipino community in the city for her comments, which have been called “racist” and “offensive.”
“The Filipinos who are working there are doing a very noble job,” Lacierda said. “To go outside and work, that’s leaving the care of their children. To Filipino domestic workers, that’s a very noble job. It is a very difficult job.”
“It’s certainly gives them justification to feel aggrieved, to feel insulted,” he said of the Filipinos who criticized the politician.
The secretary said he hoped Ip would realize that it was wrong to engage in such reasoning.
“That is a very unfair conclusion,” Lacierda said, adding that he did not think that other residents of Hong Kong agreed with Ip.
In her opinion piece for Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao, Ip said she had received reports of “families wrecked because of relationships between Filipino maids and male employers.”
Groups such as the Hong Kong-based Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body (AMCB) said, “It is racist to stereotype a particular nationality.” The group said Ip should be banned from entering the Philippines. RC
