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by Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News
Malacañang defended Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong following comments made by a Hong Kong lawmaker that reportedly described them as home-wreckers. Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda called the comments “unfair” and making a conclusion based only on one incident.
“This is a classic example of what we call inductive reasoning. You use one specific example and then you conclude in the general. So from a specific to a general. And sometimes when you use inductive reasoning, it lends itself to fallacious conclusion. So for instance, in this particular case, just because of one incident, this lawmaker said just because of this incident, [s]he now concludes on a general conclusion that Filipinos are home wrecker[s],” Lacierda said.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Executive Councilor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee’s article on Facebook and her blog criticized international media for only reporting about wrongdoings of employers of domestic workers.
She pointed out the need to focus also on the issue of “Filipino maids being turned into sexual resources for male foreigners.” She also cited complaints from “foreign women” that the government was “allowing Filipino domestic helpers to seduce their husbands.”
Lacierda said Filipinos working in Hong Kong are doing “a very noble job of providing and taking care” of the children of their employers.
“That’s a very noble job. It’s a very difficult job. And I think that lawmaker, by using just one example and to conclude that Filipino domestic workers are all home-wreckers is certainly fallacious, is certainly unfair to the many, many Filipinas who have given their own personal lives, given up their own family lives here in the Philippines to serve and help the families of others,” he added.
The President’s spokesman believes that “many Hong Kong Chinese do not agree” with the lawmaker’s comments.
“That is a very unfair conclusion to a service that is being rendered by thousands and thousands of Filipino workers in Hong Kong. And I do hope that the lawmaker would realize that it should not engage in inductive reasoning especially in a situation where only one anecdotal incident was recounted and immediately conclude that Filipinos are home-wreckers. That is a very unfair conclusion,” Lacierda said.
The Palace understands why Filipinos in Hong Kong would go out to the streets to protest the lawmaker’s comments.
“If you look at it from our side, from our point of view, those of us who are detached, those of us who are here in the Philippines, the statement of the lawmaker certainly, was totally unfair to all of the Filipino workers and it is but natural for our Filipino workers who, labor day-in and day-out, in-season and out-of-season to help the families of the Hong Kong Chinese. It certainly gives them justification to feel aggrieved, to feel insulted,” Lacierda said.
Photo: Wall Street Journal video screengrab
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
