The Malu Fernandez Statement and Resignation
The Malu Fernandez issue of bigotry, discrimination, and irresponsibility with regards to her article in People Asia Magazine and her subsequent article in The Manila Standard Today has finally caused the specific result that we have been calling for, and that she is no longer affiliated or writes for both media organizations.
In a statement which was first seen in a Geocities personal website (webpage), speculated about, then later confirmed through different media outlets including Philippine Star (parent company for People Asia), Malu Fernandez finally took responsibility and informed the public of her resignation.
I am humbled by the vehement and heated response provoked by my article entitled “From Boracay to Greece!” which came out in the June 2007 issue of People Asia. To say that this article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against the OFWs now sounds hollow after reading through all the blogs from Filipinos all over the world. I am deeply apologetic for my insensitivity and the offensive manner in which this article was written, I hear you all and I am properly rebuked. IT was truly not my intention to malign hurt or express prejudice against OFWs.
As the recent recipient and target of death threats, hate blogs, and deeply personal insults, I now truly understand the insidiousness of discrimination and prejudice disguised as humor. Our society is bound together by human chains of kindness and decency. I have failed to observe this and I am now reaping the consequences of my actions. It is my fervent hope that the lessons that I’ve learned are not lost on all those who through anonymous blogs, engaged in bigotry, discrimination, and hatred (against overweight individuals, for example).
I take full responsibility for my actions and my friends and family have nothing to do with this. To date I have submitted my resignation letters to both the Manila Standard and People Asia, on that note may this matter be laid to rest.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE LETTER
SOUNDS HOLLOW?
The first paragraph, right off the bat, is a bit contradictory, let’s see why. This is because she says,
To say that this article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against the OFWs now sounds hollow after reading through all the blogs from Filipinos all over the world.
And then she ends the paragraph with,
IT was truly not my intention to malign hurt or express prejudice against OFWs.
But if it sounds hollow to say it was not meant to malign, then why continue with this line of thought and state it as a fact in your final sentence? Is she telling us that “this statement is going to sound hollow, but I’ll say it anyway”? Why say it at all?
HATE BLOG?
Again, as will be the case for any statement, there are some aspects that I would have liked to have been edited, but seeing that Malu Fernandez resigned from her paper, maybe her apology letter, did not pass through an editor.
But she states that there have been hate blogs targeting her. Maybe the more appropriate term is “hate posts in blogs”, or “blogs with statements of hate”. For Tingog.com, this is a Philippine political and social blog. But then again, I’m not exactly sure which blogs she read, or had someone check for her anyway. Maybe she encountered a blog with the title “hate blog”, I’m not sure. I think the more appropriate term would be “extremely critical blog posts”.
WAS THIS SINCERE?
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but maybe, as I had hoped, her paradigm shifted. Is she a new person? For lack of a better term, is she “born again”? A few have expressed skepticism, and being an inherent skeptic myself, I say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Let actions be the key to which we can truly know for certain. She doesn’t start out on a clean slate with me, but her resignation probably made quite a few million Filipinos happy.
We can cannot know for certain if Malu was truly apologetic, or as some are suggesting, she may have been forced to resign, succumbed to the pressure, or just wanted this issue to die a sudden death.
I’m not a vindictive individual, but the scars of an issue like this will remain in this blog for the rest of its technology lifetime, permanently bookmarked in the halls of many blogs and articles.
DEATH THREATS?
Is she asking for our sympathy? Could she not have just said, “negative and extreme reactions to my article”? I cannot confirm this statement, or if she just simply meant that people were wishing her dead. But, obviously there is a difference. Maybe she did receive death threats, but I honestly don’t think she needed to inform us of this.
The focus was way too much on her, and not about the issue, and her own misgivings. She should read her article night and day, until she learns her lessons from that very article and not the “hate blogs” that have written about her. Try some introspection, so as not to lay the foundation for blame.
“APOLOGY” AND “BUT” STATEMENTS
In an apology letter, there are portions that I tend to look at and see just how many statements are focused on Apology, and which portions are focused on “But” statements. “But” statements are what I would define as defensive and offering excuses, sometimes meant to turn the tables and becomes an undertone of justifications.
Examples of “but” statements in her article would be,
“As the recent recipient and target of death threats, hate blogs, and deeply personal insults,”
“IT was truly not my intention to malign hurt or express prejudice against OFWs.”
“It is my fervent hope that the lessons that I’ve learned are not lost on all those who through anonymous blogs, engaged in bigotry, discrimination, and hatred (against overweight individuals, for example).”
There is no introspection with regards to her statement, and that her realization has not come from reading and re-reading her articles, and deeply thinking about her choice words and statements, but it had to come from “death threats”. It’s a sad apology letter, when one cannot find a way to deal with the specifics, but can only lump everything as one word — “actions”.
Her statement had implicit statements that her words were discriminatory, but read the statement again, she never actually says it.
THE LETTER I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SEE
To the OFWs and Filipinos whom I have hurt, I truly apologize for the pain that my article “From Boracay to Greece” has caused. The choice words were indeed discriminatory. Upon deep reflection, in the light of the numerous reactions, I have come to realize the pain that these words can cause.
I must do some soul searching and find out why such things would have caused me to write these words. Name brands are definitely not what define a person and the honorable OFWs in Dubai and in the plane where I flew economy should never have been subjected to such hateful words. My words were hateful, I realize this now.
Trying hard to write such an article in a “witty” tone only accomplished to show the insensitivity that I seem to be conducting myself with, and for this I am glad that this situation has shed light on this very important lesson.
All sectors of Philippine society deserve great respect and love, and hopefully with the passing time, my deep respect for those I have hurt will also be kindly returned to this humbled lady who has learned her lesson many times over.
Indeed, I apologize to everyone concerned, the OFW, the Filipino people, and to my family and friends. My actions and my articles were wrong.
To end, I would like to announce that have submitted a resignation letter to both Manila Standard Today and People Asia Magazine. I have to be made accountable, and I sincerely hope that this will be a step forward in taking responsibility for my actions.
Final Thought
As can be seen by comparing the two letters, the letter which I would have liked to have seen in some shape or form, focuses on the pain that she caused the OFWs and Filipino people. Her letter, on the other hand, was focused more on her plight and has injected sympathy statements such as death threats. I cannot doubt the veracity of her statements, but I would have hoped that she made this known in another occasion and not her apology letter.
With that said, two sentences in her statement, I did seem to like,
I am deeply apologetic for my insensitivity and the offensive manner in which this article was written, I hear you all and I am properly rebuked.
Our society is bound together by human chains of kindness and decency. I have failed to observe this and I am now reaping the consequences of my actions.
Every other statement was, as she would put it, “hollow”.
tags: malu fernandez, manila standard today, people asia magazine, philippine star
discussions are still on-going in blogs. Some don’t even believe she really apologized since she did not go in front of the TV cameras to issue this apology.
She should appear infront of the media for her apology.Editor’s part especially manila standard should publish also her signed resignation letter so that the public and the OFW’s will believe. No specimen, then there’s always that doubt.
no matter what she will do, be it issue another statement, go on national tv to apologize or donate three quarter of her net asset to the various causes for the OFW’s, it would be too little too late.
we should all learn that its better to be careful and tactful of our choice of words than be apologetic afterwards
That was yesterday’s issue.
I hope that what happened to Malu, will reverberate troughout all the media establishments, to journalists, quasi-journalists, broadcasters, reporter and the like to refrain from publishing and saying discriminatory comments on media. The OFWs in Dubai are lucky because they got a group of bloggers to defend them. Unfortunately, other group of people were not as lucky as them. They are maligned, albeit subtlely, in the media, and very few people stand to defend these people.
May this become a lesson to the media establishment to be more careful and tactful.
[…] Is this true? What happened to her resignation? […]
[…] Is this true? What ever happened to her resignation? […]
It would be best to accept her apology. However hollow may be. I see no sense beating a dead horse by trying to measure the amount of sincerity in her statement. As far as I am concerned, she’s been chastised 100x over and she now realised the folly of her ways.
My question is, how the heck did this drivel get past her editors at Manila Standard and People Asia? I am astonished at such questionable judgment and taste! Moreover, what business does she have being a columnist in the first place? Judging from her earlier attempts to defend the article, she’s obviously clueless with regards to tone which delicately distinguishes sarcasm and insult, being funny and being offensive. Would she know a good piece of travel writing if it smacked her in the ass?
Now that she has resigned (or been fired?), I suggest she goes back to Discovery Shores, in Boracay, sit back and sip her tropical drink, and put on, instead, a thinking cap. Maybe read a book by Paul Theroux or Pico Iyer, and discover how enormous the world is, and how small we truly are. Perhaps, then, it will hit her.
Malu Fernandez has no right to write insults and disparaging remarks to OFWs who are working hard to earn honest living. She got what she deserved. I saw her pictures and she’s fat. She’s a pig in every sense of the word! And if I have anything to say to match her bitchiness: I would say: Baboy na itsura mo, baboy pa ang ugali mo! Dobleng baboy ka! Then I’ll tell it to her snout that this is just my sense of humor working. Your regrets are too little too late!
[…] I would rather believe that this is all over, but the heat still sizzles in the comment thread of my initial post regarding Malu Fernandez and her bigotry. Elsewhere, several like-minded individuals refuse to accept her apology. […]
tama lang ang nagyari sa kanya..
magsilbing tanda sana lahat ito sa mga taong nakaangat lang ng konti sa masang Pilipino eh akala mo na kung sino!
in the first place,
mayaman sya diba?
bakit nag-economy class sya?!
bobo ba?alam na pala nya na ganun dun pa sya nagpunta!
o baka naman..nagpapanggap ka lang na mayaman?
or bayad ng company nya ang flight kaya lang mag-economy flight sya para may makurakot sya??
malu, isa kang cancer sa lipunan!
kung ikinakahiya mo kapwa mo pilipino,
pwes,umalis ka na sa pilipinas!!
kung makapanglait ka akala mo hindi ka nanggaling sa ano ng nanay mo!
baka may perang naka sabit sa ano ng nanay mo ng ipinanaganak ka?
mamamatay ka rin!!
at doon sa pupuntahan mo walang mayaman o mahirap!
susunungin ka sa impyerno!!!
Going thru the issue everything else that was written about Ms. Fernandez’s article I still wonder… why was her article allowed by her editor? Seems to me they share the same ideas or at least they find the whole storyline amusing. The apology did not sound sincere at all. Or was she just scared by all the “hate mail/blogs”?
Think before you write!
mayaman ka di ba bakit di ka magpa lipo?!!!!!!!!!!
“This” Malu seemed to have missed the point altogether. I am appalled by how dim witted she is. To say that her article was out of acerbic wit, tongue-in-cheek is stretching it!!! It was nothing more than a very poor attempt at it! Malu should have realized, having received such a large outcry of “foul” from readers all over, that her statements were just a tad irresponsible… For her to come out with a response that was nothing close to an apology but in fact was another of her attempts at putting those she perceives as below her in their “rightful” place. She mentions writing only for a small target audience, I wonder if she realizes how extremely small her bigoted audience is.
“The bottom line was just that I had offended the reader’s socioeconomic background.”
This reader’s economic background is certainly very close to that of Malu’s… and yet why am I as offended as the rest of the world? Because the difference between Malu and the rest of us is that we have a social conscience.
“If any of these people actually read anything thicker then a magazine they would find it very funny.”
Maybe, if Malu does read anything thicker than a magazine she’d wake up!
“Now I seriously ask you, am I being a diva or are people around me just lacking in common sense? Perhaps it’s a little of both!”
Hahaha, a good ending. Now, with this you actually succeeded in being funny! You’re right, it is a little of both… you are definitely a diva (and you seem to totally enjoy it? How perverted!)… and yes the people around you seem to lack common sense. And the operative words being “around you”.
omg. i just read Malu Fernandez’ article.. “From Boracay to Greece.” Im soo disappointed with what i have read. I don’t even know her, but this makes me hate her AS IF i know her too well. Anwyay, i’d like to make some points.
In her letter, she wrote that..
“To say that this article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against the OFWs…”
AND? wtf? “NOT MEANT TO HURT?” oh cge.. sbhin mo sa isang my bad breath na my bad breath siya, sa tingin mo, khit ndi mo “INTENTION” na mahurt siya, ndi siya mahuhurt?? astig ka tsong. anu un? manhid?
“I am deeply apologetic for my insensitivity and the offensive manner in which this article was written, I hear you all and I am properly rebuked…”
kung baga sa movies, dba merong mtrcb na tumitingin kung pwedeng ipalabas ang movie na un.. ciempre sa pagsulat, meron din naman dba? panu nya na-publish ung article nya? anu un.. ndi nabasa ng kung cnu man boss nya? o wala lang tlg clang malagay dun. let’s just say na, hindi naman mappublish ung article na un kung merong nakabasa nun ng PAULIT - ULIT dba? kung merong nagcheck nun, anu un? tanga? oh baka naman binayaran nya un pra ipublish ksi sobrang disappointed siya sa economy class.. hahaha.
“Our society is bound together by human chains of kindness and decency. I have failed to observe this and I am now reaping the consequences of my actions..”
you deserve every bit of it. buti ba kung isa lang ang OFW dun e.. mali ka ng kinalaban.. cla marami, ikaw magisa ka lng.. cnsb nga ntin dba? “The more, the merrier..” wag kang magalit o kaya magtampo o kaya mainis sa mga taong nagrreact sa sinulat mo. sinulat mo un kaya paningdigan mo. tama lang na nagresign ka. we don’t need nasty journalists who are well off, destroying our own pride as filipinos.
btw, nabasa na ng buong mundo ung article mo. pati mga students. mahiya ka. may picture ka pa naman. nakabroadcast pa pangalan mo.
_m*i*m*i_
sus ngayon lang siya magsosorry, after the death threats and everything. it’s obviously NOT sincere, despite her apologetic tone. she should just leave the country, she’s a disgrace to all Filipinos regardless of social class.
yes She must be thrown out of our country and if no other country could accept her, she can just stay to where she suppose to be as mentally retarded. She is obviously needing a psychiatric help. I am so sorry for her that no one understood that she is indeed a psycho.
However, this lesson is not for her, it is for all of us. You cant just judge a person: Some were poor became rich in a day and some rich became poor in a second of time. People who has to means to voice / publish something like media must not forget the meaning of its nature, to educate and lift life to betterment or more, any positive things.
I dont like to end up thinking that maybe this Malu needs to be famous and used the newspaper/magazine industry to elevate her intention or likewise