DFA on racist Hong Kong textbook: ‘No comment’

A photo of the textbook depicting Filipinos as domestic helpers. / Photo from Tom Grundy’s official blog. (Hongwrong.com)

MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) have chosen to remain silent when asked whether they have plans of requesting to change the Hong Kong school textbook which depicted Filipinos as domestic helpers.

The textbook, which went viral after Blogger Tom Grundy posted in his Hongwrong.com blog, showcased a sketch of a dark-skinned woman saying, ““I am Filipino. I am a domestic helper in Hong Kong.”

There were also sketches of other nationalities in the textbook but held no discriminating content.

A white man was drawn saying, “I am British. I am an English teacher,” a light-skinned woman saying, “I am Japanese. I have a sushi restaurant in Hong Kong,” and a dark-skinned boy saying, “I am Indian. I study in an international school.”

Blogger Tom Grundy said in his blog, “In case you were wondering about your destiny in Hong Kong, a primary school textbook is here to enlighten you with this fun ‘fill-in-the-blank’ task [titled] ‘racial harmony’!”

DFA Spokesperson Charles Jose chose not to give any comment on the issue.

Instead, he cited the growing demand for Filipinos all over the world saying that, “in this age of globalization, Filipinos are everywhere.”

Records of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that around 970,000 of the 1.4 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed in 2012 rehired workers.

Hong Kong also belongs to the list of the most popular destinations for OFWS, ranking fourth, with 131,000 OFWs working there.

“They are needed and welcome in where they can contribute,” Jose added.

With reports from Matikas Santos