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Filipinos feel disrespected by “the land of COVID-19” headline by Thai newspaper

A Thai journalist confirmed that the headline was talking about the 165 Filipino teachers who arrived in Bangkok from “the land of COVID-19.”

Filipinos felt disrespected after a Thai newspaper headline said that Filipino teachers had just arrived in Bangkok from “the land of COVID-19.”

The headline came about after the Philippines took over Indonesia as the Southeast Asian country with the most coronavirus cases, while Thailand is considered as one of the more successful nations in responding to the pandemic.

“The Philippine Embassy wishes to express its deep dissatisfaction over the characterization in the headline of the Philippines in relation to the return of the teachers,” Philippine Consul General to Bangkok Val Simon Roque said in an open letter to the newspaper’s editor in chief.

“The characterization is inappropriate, insensitive, and unhelpful at a time when all of us, brothers and sisters in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), are closely cooperating to deal with the new and unforeseen challenges brought about by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic,” Consul General Roque added.

Thai Rath, the local newspaper had the attention of the Philippine embassy after publishing the headline.

A Thai journalist confirmed that the headline was talking about the 165 Filipino teachers who arrived in Bangkok from “the land of COVID-19.”

Richard Barrow, a British expat who has a verified Twitter account and has been living in Thailand for over two decades asked, “Why do they need to insinuate that they come from the ‘land of COVID-19’?”

However, it was actually Singapore that first tagged the Philippines as ‘the new COVID hot spot’.

Warnings of xenophobia and racial discrimination to people who belong to countries with surging COVID-19 cases have also been given by human rights advocates.

The Philippines has over 150,000 cases as of this writing.

Filipinos weren’t too happy with the headline.

https://twitter.com/edssmiranda/status/1292807165166489600

https://twitter.com/SheisAengel/status/1292811028582076416

https://twitter.com/Cockshapedice/status/1292840659078901760

https://twitter.com/iwuvpancake_/status/1292818270588768256

https://twitter.com/kristian_alnas/status/1292853874181586945

https://twitter.com/rodmagaru/status/1293045970436075523

https://twitter.com/agi_lliby/status/1292822663442788353

https://twitter.com/Trojeanwar/status/1292833633242198018

https://twitter.com/rayyysanchez/status/1292827894054412295

Written by Charles Teves

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