“Is this even legal?”: Lauren Young asks about ‘Chinese-only’ restaurant in Subic

FILE: “Can’t wait to head back to the beach with my friends next week. This heat is just intolerable when you’re in the city.” (Photo: @lo_young/Instagram)

Twenty-five-year-old Kapuso actress Lauren Young takes to her 1.01 million Twitter followers last Monday, July 15 to share her encounter with an “Only for Chinese Customer” restaurant during her recent trip to Subic.

In the post, that has since reached more than 5,700 likes, as of writing, Lauren asks “Is this even legal?” sharing that her favorite restaurant in Subic was sold and a sign that says “Only for Chinese customer” is now put up. She elaborates, “I really want to know if business owners are allowed to do this,” adding, “If I had a restaurant, am I allowed to put up these signs, for example: ‘Only for dog customers’ or ‘Only for Filipino customers.’ Let me know.” She also provides two images of the signage. 

One of Lauren’s followers called the attention of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on the matter, which the DTI responded stating to “lodge the concern to the Consumer Protection and Advocacy Bureau.”

When another user asked about the legality of the restaurant to operate, @rfWhley on Twitter responded, revealing, “Everyone should know, I’m friends with the Korean owners and they just recently leased the business to the Chinese and were completely unaware of the sign until I showed them the pictures. Something will be done about it soon. This is technically not Hana,” referring to the previous restaurant in its place. A day after the actress’ post, the restaurant has a new sign that reads, “Correction! We also serve Chinese food.”

This controversy comes two months after the DTI ordered the shutdown of a Chinese food park in Las Piñas for having illegal documents. The issue was first brought to the attention of the government agency after it sparked discussions on only allowing Chinese people to enter the facility.