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Taipei-Manila Row: Do
not attack Filipinos: rights groups
SOBERING CALL: Migrant workers from the
Philippines contribute to the economy and must not be made to pay for their
government’s mistakes, rights advocates say
By Loa Iok-sin, Chiu Chih-jou and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporters,
with staff writer
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
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