{"id":50446,"date":"2015-05-26T21:57:15","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T13:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=50446"},"modified":"2015-05-26T21:57:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T13:57:15","slug":"tony-meloto-speaks-up-on-rants-in-his-sexist-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/05\/26\/tony-meloto-speaks-up-on-rants-in-his-sexist-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Meloto speaks up on rants in his \u2018sexist\u2019 speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gawad<\/a>
Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto (Photo from Gawad Kalinga\u2019s website)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto finally broke his silence after being slammed for his purportedly \u2018sexist\u2019 and \u2018disturbing\u2019 speech he delivered last month.<\/p>\n

Meloto delivered his speech at the University of Hawaii-Manoa\u2019s Center for Philippine Studies (CPS) as part of their 40th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n

The renowned Filipino entrepreneur stated in his Twitter account that he believed his speech actually received \u2018enthusiastic and positive\u2019 response from the audience. He was then puzzled as to why he was labeled \u2018sexist and elitist.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst time to be called \u2018sexist and elitist\u2019 after 20 years of honoring our women and caring for the poor, after hundreds of speeches here and abroad,\u201d Meloto said in one of his Tweets.<\/p>\n

When asked by a Twitter user as to why he was being criticized, Meloto replied: \u201cThe immediate response was enthusiastic and positive, including inspiring newspaper articles of my speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CPS, however, had a different response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was most disturbing about his speech was his sexism. His belief that the \u2018greatest asset of the Philippines is our beautiful women,\u2019 and that the future of the nation can be advanced by using them to attract the \u2018best and brightest\u2019 men from the West, and enticing them to invest in the Philippines, was outrageously sexist and deeply offensive to everybody in the audience, as well as patronizing and disrespectful to Filipino women in particular,\u201d they said in an official statement released.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Meloto went on to share his views on the need for Filipino women and their white husbands to produce what he (humorously) called \u2018cappuccinos,\u2019 and appeared to present such a policy of seduction and reproduction as a solution to the problems of economic development in the Philippines,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n

As read in their statement, the CPS was not amused by Meloto\u2019s remarks and claimed that the crowd only let out a \u2018nervous laughter\u2019 when he delivered his speech. They were not at all \u2018enthusiastic\u2019 about it, with some of the audience leaving the venue.<\/p>\n

The CPS had already apologized to its members who were offended by Meloto\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

Aside from being \u2018sexist and elitist,\u2019 the Filipino entrepreneur was also slammed for referring to the Philippines as a \u2018broken\u2019 country and the Filipinos as \u2018hopeless and violent\u2019 people.<\/p>\n

Prior the issue, Meloto was also known for working with the poor through global development programs that \u2018built integrated, holistic and sustainable communities in slum areas.\u2019 He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Community Leadership in 2006. And more recently, he was named as Reader\u2019s Digest\u2019s Top 4 Most Trusted Filipino in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto finally broke his silence after being slammed for his purportedly \u2018sexist\u2019 and \u2018disturbing\u2019 speech …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":50447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","mauthors-jane-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50446","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=50446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}