Guam exec’s remarks irk PH consulate

HAGATNA, Guam—The Filipinos’ “English is not good enough,” according to a senior official at the Attorney General’s Office here in an anonymous YouTube video circulating here.

That official is now the subject of an ethics complaint that the Philippine Consulate General in Guam is preparing to file with the Guam Bar Association.

The controversial comment was made by Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Abrams reportedly during the Guam Board of Allied Health’s meeting, where members discussed a proposal to outsource a transcription task to a transcriber in the Philippines.

“I don’t like the idea at all,” Abrams told the board. “Their English is not good enough. You’re dealing with a third world country where English is a second language and we’re dealing with tapes that are not crystal clear.”

The undated video clip, posted on Youtube was e-mailed to the media and local senators by a doctor, who has left Guam.

At the board meeting, Abrams reportedly objected to the transcription outsourcing in the Philippines, saying, “We’re dealing with a transcriber who may or may not know anything about legal proceedings and certainly can’t pick up the phone… to get clarification as to what they might have said.”

After receiving a copy of the video clip, Philippine consul Bayani Mangibin met with Attorney General Lenny Rapadas and conveyed the consulate general’s concern over the “racially-discriminating remarks.”