By Xinhua
Manila : The Philippine government said Wednesday it would ask for an apology from the producers of a US television series, “Desperate Housewives”, for an alleged “racial slur” against Filipino medical practitioners in one of its episodes.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that in an episode of the show, one of the lead characters in the play wanted to make sure that the nurses attending to her during a medical consultation “did not graduate from some med school in the Philippines”.
“Well, on the face, we can look at it as a racial slur. We are looked down upon too much, considering the number of our medical professionals (in the US),” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told a news conference at the Malacanang presidential palace.
Asked if the Palace would seek an apology from the producers of the show, as well as the local television network ABC which carries it, Ermita said: “Yes, I think we should, on behalf of our Filipino professionals.”
Ermita likewise appealed to civil society groups and other Filipino organisations in the US to “call the attention” of the show producers to the “racial slur”.
The US recruits thousands of Filipino nurses each year to work in hospitals.