Hong Kong, April 1, 2009 (AFP) - A Hong Kong columnist who has been the target of Filipino fury since describing the country as a "nation of servants" said Wednesday he was sorry if his satirical article caused offence.
Chip Tsao's apology comes after Hong Kong's Filipino community said it planned to hold a rally to protest his column, which appeared in a local magazine last week.
"The article was never intended to be insulting to the Filipino domestic workers," he told AFP.
"English, being a global language, is open to different interpretations by those who come from various cultural backgrounds.
"Has anyone been deeply upset, it was never my intention and I feel sorry."
Tsao raised hackles by writing in HK Magazine that Manila's claims to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea were ridiculous in the face of Beijing's rival territorial claims.
"As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter," he wrote.
More than 100,000 Filipinos work in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong, mostly as low-paid domestic workers.
Tsao wrote in his column that he had warned his own maid that if she wanted a pay rise next year she should tell her compatriots the Spratlys belong to China.
Manila has since barred Tsao from entering the Philippines, despite the magazine issuing an apology, and local Filipinos have said they will hold a rally this Sunday.
"We are very, very angry at this article," Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said before Tsao's apology.
She said she expected thousands of marchers to turn out.
"We are all united in our position that the article was racist, discriminatory and demeaning to Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong," she said in an earlier statement.
HK Magazine is published by Asia City Publishing Group, which runs free English-language listings and lifestyle titles in several Asian cities, including Bangkok and Singapore.
The diplomatic dispute over the Spratlys, believed to sit atop vast mineral and oil deposits, was renewed early last month when China sent a patrol vessel to the area.
The chain of atolls and reefs is also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Source: Hong Kong columnist says sorry if Philippines article offended. April 1. (www.yehey.com)
Teacher Yanda