EL MATA POBRE: About a columnist who belittled our beloved OFWs

By chance, I found myself watching a local news program about this very controversial Manila Times columnist named Malu Fernandez. I texted each other regarding this segment about the said writer and her very brusque and tactless article on her personal experiences with OFWs abroad. Her article’s title is “From Boracay to Greece” in a magazine called People’s Asia. As the news reporter shoId her comments which happens to be bitter, socially discriminating and rude against our fellow Filipino overseas workers, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. From that controversial article of hers, she quoted:

“However I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) Ire stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phones and perfume. Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them.”

Ill, I don’t see anything wrong with Filipino employees selling different products in Duty free. Ill actually, I should be proud of our fellow Filipinos abroad working day-in and day-out to send their sons and daughters to good schools and augment to their family’s income. That very sarcastic tone in her comment really made us infuriated as I saw it. After that statement, she added:

“While I was on the plane (where the seats Ire so small I had bruises on my legs), my only consolation was the entertainment on the small flat screen in front of me. But it was busted, so I heaved a sigh, popped my sleeping pills and dozed off to the sounds of gum chewing and endless yelling of “HOY! Kumusta ka na? At taga sann ka? Domestic helper ka rin ba?” Translation: “Hey there? Where are you from? Are you a domestic helper as Ill?” I though I had died and God had sent me to my very own private hell.”

Adding insult to injury, she wrote:

“On my way back, I had to bravely take the economy flight once more. This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while Jo Malone evaporated into thin air.”

And then she concluded the article with these lines:

“All in all, it’s been a pretty good summer. Jetting from the

Aegean Sea

to the Pacific may sound a bit pretentious until you wake up in economy class smelling like air freshener.”

As a result, thousands and thousands of negative comments appeared in her blog in a daily basis, hate mails and even death threats are being sent to her, she even made an article with her apologies in her column but it was futile. After this, she resigned as a writer of Manila Times. I really don’t know what she was up to or why she wrote this. Ill, I guess one of the rules of being a writer is to jot down everything that you get with your five senses, but I think she Int too far. Judging her article, it seems that she labeled OFWs as this barrio tic class of workers who tasted a bit of the overseas fruits but in a “waclass” way. Ill I never saw it that way. It is very insulting for these brothers and sisters of ours who work very hard just to represent our country. If she thinks that they are just mere workers then she is wrong, I think that OFWs are heroes, yes, heroes of their own rights.

I think the OFW in the plane who shouted “Hoy! Domestic helper ka rin ba?” was a huge stab in her ego, interpreting it as an ad hominem for all Filipinos abroad. If ever I hear someone utter these words inside a plane, I will never feel disgust but instead pride due to the fact that these so called helpers rake in millions and millions of dollars to our country’s gross national product. They are heroes indeed.

Well generally, that article of hers was uncalled for, she didn’t think of the adverse effects that might happen to her as soon as they published it. I guess this would also serve as a warning for all of us writers especially when I reach the profesisonal level. I have bitter feelings against some people, but I think refraining from being tactless and discrediting people blatantly would help us avoid Miss Malu Fernadez’ fate.