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Philippine Election, Politics and Controversies

source : Inquirer.net   
Sunday, 07 October 2007 02:25
{mosimage}MANILA, 6 October 2007 — The uproar against a perceived “racial slur” on the US sitcom “Desperate Housewives” has barely cooled down and already another protest against a US television show is coming.

The cause of the outrage this time is the “The Daily Show,” a satirical program aired over the cable channel Comedy Central, which portrayed former Philippine President Corazon Aquino as a prostitute or loose woman.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chairperson of the Senate foreign relations committee, said she will ask the Department of Foreign Affairs to protest the slur on the Philippines’ democracy icon with the US State Department. Santiago earlier asked Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo to issue a diplomatic protest for a “racial slur” recently made in “Desperate Housewives” against the Filipino medical community.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III said he understood that “The Daily Show” TV episode where her mother was featured together with former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher “was part of a joke intended for American audiences who are facing the possibility of having a woman president.”

The spoof was shown in “news report” by Samantha Bee titled “Is America Ready for a Woman President?”

Sen. Aquino said he has nothing against satire but the portrayal of her mother was “insensitive” and “in extremely poor taste.”

“It is sad that while adding humor to such an important issue, the producers of the show chose to use pictures that were disrespectful, insensitive and in extremely poor taste,” the senator said.

“My mom only wishes to convey that she will include those who made this video in her prayers,” he said.

TV show host and actress Kris Aquino, the former president’s daughter, said what she found offensive was the word “slut” written on her mother’s picture shown in the segment.

“What if we took someone like, say, former President Jimmy Carter who builds homes for the poor all over the world, and said he was a former ‘call boy,’” Kris Aquino told ABS-CBN’s online news.

Deedee Sytangco, spokeswoman of the former president, questioned on ABS-CBN television the sanity of the show’s producers.

“Whoever put that graphic has a sick mind. Why would (they) do that to a revered democratic icon all over the world, known very much for her clean living and religious life?” Sytangco asked.

Corazon Aquino, the 11th president of the Philippines and world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, women empowerment, and religious piety, used to be a low-profile housewife until her popular husband Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was assassinated at the Manila International Airport on his return from exile in the US on Aug. 21, 1983.

Filipinos from all walks of life who were outraged by the murder rallied behind her and overthrew the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986, in what has become known as the EDSA People Power revolution.

Born into a landed gentry, Mrs. Aquino was a consistent honors student in school and studied in exclusive schools in the Philippines and the US. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree major in French and minor in Mathematics in 1953, she took up law at the Far Eastern University in Manila, but her studies were abbreviated when she married Ninoy Aquino, the rising political star during those times.

Ninoy Aquino, a former journalist, was widely considered as the likeliest successor of Marcos as president of the Philippines. Marcos prevented that from happening by placing the country under martial rule and throwing Aquino and all his political enemies in jail.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 October 2007 02:26 )
 
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