Amid rising tensions between Taiwan and the Philippines, rights advocacy groups yesterday urged the public to refrain from verbally or physically attacking Filipinos living in Taiwan.
“It’s not just Filipinos; all immigrants from Southeast Asia in the country would feel threatened when walking on the streets,” TransAsia Sisterhood Taiwan executive secretary Ly Vuoch-heang (李佩香), who is an immigrant from Cambodia, told a news conference in Taipei.
“I’ve not been attacked, because I’m from Cambodia, but I don’t feel comfortable when people keep asking me whether I’m from the Philippines when I’m just going to buy lunch,” she said.
Tensions between Taiwan and the Philippines have been on the rise since Philippine Coast Guard personnel on May 9 opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing a fisherman, Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成).
While the two countries have not been successful in reaching an agreement in dealing with the aftermath, a seemingly anti-Philippine sentiment has been developing among the public in Taiwan. Some communities have held rallies saying that they do not welcome Filipinos, vendors in a market in Changhua County posted signs saying that they would not conduct business with Filipinos and, most recently, a Filipino migrant worker in Greater Tainan was attacked on Thursday by four people whose identities are not known.
“It’s not right to vent anger you may feel toward the Philippine government on Filipino migrant workers — when you even think about attacking these hard workers, please think of their contribution to Taiwan’s economy,” Taiwan International Workers’ Association policy researcher Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮) said.
Chen accused President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of attempting to encourage people to vent their anger on Filipino workers as he has become a target of criticism for mishandling of the incident, “otherwise he would not have waited until now to ask people not to do so.”
Taiwan Committee for Philippine Concerns convener Hsia Hsiao-chuan (夏曉鵑) said that Philippine migrant workers are also victims of their own government.
“More than 100 political dissidents have been murdered since Philippine President Benigno Aquino III took office,” she said. “Filipinos are also victims of their own government, hence they should not be regarded as the same as the Philippine government.”
On Wednesday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安), who hails from the same constituency in Pingtung County as Hung, said on his Facebook page that “the perpetrator who fired on our fishing boat is the administration of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, not the Filipinos. We must not vent our anger on innocent Philippine nationals in Taiwan, because doing so would only result in a deepening animosity.”
“These vulnerable Filipino workers have been doing their duty. They were not the thugs who initiated the shooting,” Pan said.
A number of netizens echoed Pan’s call by urging the public not to use Philippine nationals as scapegoats, nor to complicate the matter.
Meanwhile, some netizens and Pingtung-based Filipinos dismissed allegations of victimization in their area.
“Over the past decades, the nation has seen quite a few fishermen from Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港) being detained and even killed by the Philippines. Yet, has anyone ever seen a Filipino being chased down and beaten on the streets of Donggang?” a netizen wrote.
A Filipino spouse in Pingtung’s Chaojhou Township (潮州), who identified herself as Lin Li-na (林麗娜), said all her co-workers were easygoing and friendly toward her.
Chen Chi-lan (陳季嵐), proprietor of the restaurant where Lin worksw, said Lin had a positive work attitude and always managed to finish her work, no matter how demanding it was.
“She is optimistic and constantly has a smile on her face, and really gets along well with her colleagues,” Chen said.
He added that despite their indignation over the shooting and the escalating diplomatic row between Taipei and Manila, Lin’s relationship with her peers was not affected.
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi and Cheng Shu-ting
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
A promotional event for the launch of a drinks store led to police questioning a 26-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), the Taichung Police Department said yesterday. Police said that they questioned Chang and forwarded the case to prosecutors, accusing her of producing, distributing, broadcasting or selling pornography. Police said she faces charges related to the alleged distribution of indecent photographs on Twitter and using overtly sexual innuendos to promote the store on Monday night. Officers stumbled upon the content during a routine Internet “patrol.” Chang faces a prison sentence of up to two years and up to a NT$90,000 fine if found guilty
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
MORE WARNINGS: If the US company does not clarify and solve issues with its frozen berries, the FDA might extend an import suspension implemented last month, it said The Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said it fined Costco NT$4.5 million (US$146,265) over contaminated frozen strawberries, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that although the US company had filed an improvement plan, an import suspension on frozen berries could remain. Three types of frozen berry products imported and sold by Costco have tested positive for the hepatitis A virus since April. The Kaohsiung health department previously fined Costco NT$300,000 for not providing the sales list of a contaminated batch of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend imported from Chile, in contravention of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法). It later
RSS