{"id":47429,"date":"2015-04-22T01:15:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T17:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=47429"},"modified":"2025-01-29T13:51:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T18:51:38","slug":"hk-politician-flak-over-statement-on-ph-domestic-helpers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/04\/22\/hk-politician-flak-over-statement-on-ph-domestic-helpers\/","title":{"rendered":"HK politician flak over statement on PH domestic helpers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Regina<\/a>
Regina Ip (Photo by K.Y. Cheng)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s ex-security chief and now lawmaker Regina Ip was criticized after she referred to some Filipino domestic helpers as \u2018marriage wreckers\u2019 in her op-ed article last Saturday in Ming Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper in the region.<\/p>\n

Ip mentioned about \u2018families wrecked because of relationships between Filipino maids and male employers.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI have received complaints from expatriate women\u2026 that Filipino domestic helpers seduce their husband,\u201d she said. \u201cI could only tell them that under the current law, it is quite difficult to regulate.<\/p>\n

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\u201d<\/p>\n

Ip also cited a former case of a 15-year-old girl who apparently committed suicide by jumping off their apartment block. The girl\u2019s father was British and her mother was Filipina.<\/p>\n

The police, however, dismissed the incident as they said that the girl actually fell and there were no suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n

Still, Herminia Garcia, the mother, was arrested for overstaying and for neglect of the child and Nick Cousins, the father, was bailed for neglect and permitting the overstay.<\/p>\n

At present, there has been a growing concern over the series of abuse cases on domestic helpers in Hong Kong, which has about 300,000 maids mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Ip, however, turned her attention on the testimonies of expatriate wives attesting about their helpers having affairs with their husbands.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than reporting improper behavior by local employers, should we pay more attention to Filipino maids becoming sexual resources for foreign men in Hong Kong,\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Various rights groups said that Ip\u2019s comments in her article were \u2018racist\u2019 and \u2018offensive.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is racist to stereotype a particular nationality. She should be banned from entering the Philippines,\u201d said Eman Villanueva of the Asian Migrants\u2019 Coordinating Body.<\/p>\n

Ip\u2019s comments were also regarded as \u2018racially discriminatory.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cForeign domestic workers are treated as second-hand citizens by some politicians who feel no qualms about making offensive statements about them,\u201d said Claudia Mo of the Civic Party.<\/p>\n

In her defense, Ip said that she \u2018merely cited some facts.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the article was to express concerns for foreign domestic workers as to whether they have been exploited\u2026 I wasn\u2019t pointing a finger at anyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Philippine Consulate General, for its part, released an official statement regarding the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Philippine Consulate General is concerned about Ms. Ip\u2019s unfortunate choice of words.<\/p>\n

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However, the Consulate General believes that this is not reflective of the general sentiments of the Hong Kong community at large,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The Consulate General also believed that the Filipino domestic workers truly give \u2018positive impact on both the quality of life the families concerned as well as the economy of Hong Kong as a whole.<\/p>\n

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\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscrimination should have no place in any society, most especially Hong Kong, which prides itself as Asia\u2019s World City,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong\u2019s ex-security chief and now lawmaker Regina Ip was criticized after she referred to some Filipino domestic helpers as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":47430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95,483],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","category-politics","mauthors-jane-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286797,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47429\/revisions\/286797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}