BBC not controlled by UK gov’t—ambassador

By Michaela P. del Callar and Angie M. Rosales

10/08/2008

Philippine officials demanded an apology from the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) on Tuesday over what they said was a racist portrayal of Filipinos in one of the network’s comedy shows.

They said an episode of “Harry and Paul,” the brainchild of British comics Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, humiliated Filipinos working abroad as domestic servants.

“I don’t like our fellow Filipinos to be insulted,” said Raul Gonzalez, Justice secretary.

Ac ongresswoman earlier said she was “revolted” by a sketch in which Enfield’s character said he was trying to get Whitehouse to “mate” with his Filipina maid.

“He kept ordering the girl to gyrate and dance in front of Paul,” before ordering the woman to have sex with him, the congresswoman was quoted as saying, calling it “racist, humiliating and disgusting.”

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo yesterday summoned the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the Philippines following the alleged racist portrayal of a Filipino housemaid by BBC.

Speaking to reporters after emerging from a 30-minute meeting with Romulo at the DFA, British envoy Peter Beckingham stopped short of issuing a public apology, but said his government “regrets” the incident.

Beckingham noted that the show was not a British government program and that “the views expressed or portrayed by BBC are completely independent from those of the UK government.”

“I think the apology, probably and correctly should come from the people who produced it,” Beckingham said.

Although he said the British press is free and that the government does not interfere with the media directly, the envoy said the UK government hopes the media would “always respect the human rights and dignity of ethnic and minority groups, particularly religious groups.”

The show has upset Filipinos in Britain and in the Philippines, prompting them to urge the government to protest the racial slur.

Beckingham assured that the more than 200,000 Filipinos in the UK remain an important part of the British society, adding that “We have a great deal of respect, interest and concern for the Filipino communities in Great Britain.”

Gonzalez, however said Filipinos are also to be blamed for giving the impression that women in the country are seen as sex objects, but nevertheless stressed that a protest is in order, a call that was echoed by Sen. Loren Legarda and proposed appropriate Senate action through a resolution moving for a diplomatic action, banning of the show’s producers in the country, along with the airing of the show, among others.

Gonzalez said the “reason we are being attacked by foreigners is that we we do it among ourselves. Who are giving them that impression? We do. We always telegraph these things, to the world.

“We should be blamed also for attacking ourselves,” he said. With AFP

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