ISSUE ANALYSIS No.19
October 13, 2007

Victims of injustice in foreign lands and abandoned by their own government, Filipinos suffer a system of double jeopardy.

Double Jeopardy in America

Despite having common ancestral roots, Filipino immigrants and Filipino-Americans in the United States have been a disparate community. Pulled by the imperative of financial stability, they rarely show some rants and raves when it comes to political and social issues. The last time that clusters of the community – now estimated at four million –came out with a collective voice of solidarity was in the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship and of the Estrada regime.

During the last several days, an avalanche of outrage among many of the immigrants and Fil-Ams has been generated by a controversial TV episode that exploded right into where it hurt them most: national pride and economic rights.

In a Sept. 30 episode of the popular ABC-Disney TV comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives,” actress Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer, asked the person attending to her during a medical consultation, "Can I check those diplomas because I want to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines."

TV, a powerful medium, proved to be a lightning bolt as well. In a couple of days, enraged Filipinos, many of them doctors and nurses, spoke out against the racial slur through the multimedia such as online petitions and press barrages. The spontaneous response prompted ABC-Disney to issue a three-sentence apology(1) on Oct. 4, which proved to be insincere and insufficient as far as many Filipinos are concerned. Indeed, whereas the controversial episode was broadcast on TV and was watched by millions all over the world, the one-paragraph apology was just emailed by a minor ABC-Disney official to a Filipino correspondent who, in turn, filed a report about it in a national daily in the Philippines.

Sincere apology

Members of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON)(2) , which has been in the thick of the campaign against the immigrant bashing and to pressure the TV network to show a more sincere and appropriate apology, held a three-hour picket in front of the ABC-Disney headquarters in New York City Oct. 5. Alliance leaders pushed a six-point demand to the management in a dialog held while the picket was ongoing, but at this writing the company has not acted on the demands satisfactorily. Aside from issuing a public apology, the demands included an investigation of the incident, the pull out of the episode, and holding cultural sensitivity programs for all management and employees. NAFCON also asked the ABC management to acknowledge publicly the decades-long contribution of Filipino medical practitioners and health care providers to the U.S. medical community

Absent any “sincere, appropriate, and satisfactory apology,” NAFCON, along with other groups and individuals, are calling for an international boycott of all ABC-Disney products including the “Desperate Housewives.” In the pipeline are also class suits to be filed by medical practitioners against the giant network.

Many Filipinos, particularly doctors, nurses, and health care providers, have denounced the racial slur as a dirty dig at the integrity and competence of Filipino health professionals whose skills and compassionate service are known worldwide. Several doctors who have been in the United States for decades believe that the incident has besmirched the credibility of the Filipino medical community and, in effect, the future of their profession. They have taken care of the sick and elderly in America, they said, yet the ABC-Disney spat ignored that, which only shows a condescending attitude on the Filipinos.

Arroyo government

Surprisingly, as soon as the short apology was emailed by the TV network, the Arroyo government through Sergio Apostol, presidential legal adviser, accepted it as good enough to bring closure to the issue. By its swift acceptance of the “apology,” the Philippine government only exposed itself as being far removed from the undercurrents of public opinion among the Filipino communities and as a regime that gives primacy to the prerogatives of U.S. corporations.

Among many Filipino expatriates in the United States, the Arroyo government suffers from a credibility problem. The problem stems not only from an endemic corruption and electoral fraud but also a poor record of human rights and of the protection of its own citizens, migrant workers, and immigrants in foreign countries. In many foreign destinations, millions of Filipinos, who are forced to leave by oppressive economic conditions in their country of origin, bear the burdens of wage discrimination, exploitation, physical abuse, and racial prejudice. But no signs of protection let alone compassion can be expected from a government that is more interested in maintaining a policy of subservience and mendicancy to foreign governments.

That is why when incidents like the hanging of Flor Contemplacion(3) in Singapore or a racial spat and illegal recruitment like the Sentosa27++ nurses(4) in the U.S. happen, Filipinos struggle on their own to seek redress and justice. Victims of injustice in foreign lands and abandoned by their own government, they suffer a system of double jeopardy.

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(1) Issued on Oct. 4, the ABC “apology” read: "The producers of ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines. As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs."
(2) A national multi-issue alliance of Filipino organizations and individuals in the United States, NAFCON advocates for the protection of the rights and welfare of Filipinos by fighting for social, economic, and racial justice and equality. It was launched in San Jose, California in 2003. NAFCON’s members and affiliated groups, including professionals, academics, students, and migrant workers encompass over 23 cities in the United States.
(3) A domestic, Contemplacion was sentenced to death by hanging by Singapore authorities in 1995 over police charges that she caused the death of a fellow domestic and a four-year-old child. Two witnesses testified that Contemplacion was framed by the child’s father but their testimonies were found by the court to be incredible.
(4) The nurses, some of them top medical graduates from the Philippines, last year resigned from SentosaCare facilities in New York over illegal recruitment and breach of contract. A complaint filed with the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) was dismissed following intervention by a top Arroyo official while U.S. prosecutors refused to file a case against the nurses’ employers for discrimination. The case is under investigation in the Philippine Senate.