Filipino community still rocks

Despite tensions at a national level between China and the Philippines, Filipino expatriates in the capital city say they have not felt any change in attitude toward them.

Local agencies, which find employment for Filipino housekeepers or nannies, have said that there has been no noticeable change in demand for employees.

"Our business is stable these days, and no Filipino housekeepers have been fired, like in the recent case in Hong Kong people are talking about," said a female employee from MQJ Filipino Maid Service Center, who declined to be named.

The employee was referring to a microblog post from Yu Jinyong, chairman of China Evertime Investment Holdings Group, which said he had fired two housekeepers from the Philippines who worked at his house in Hong Kong. Yu, who is from the Chinese mainland, went on to say that he wanted the Filipino government to "taste a tiny slice of attack" on Sunday. His post was forwarded thousands of times.

In an online survey yesterday to ask people's opinion of Yu's act on Sina Weibo, which only got 800 votes as of yesterday, about 49 percent considered that was "patriotic" while 30 percent think it was just Yu screaming for attention.

It comes after escalating diplomatic tensions between China and the Philippines over territorial rights in the South China Sea.

A manager, surnamed Zhou, in charge of the business in Beijing from Zhongcheng Service, a housekeeping agency based in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, said she has arranged three housekeepers to work for customers in Beijing and none of them has been cancelled or replaced.

"There hasn't been any discrimination in my company or even outside among the people I don't know. As usual, local people ask where I come from, but there has been no hostility afterward," said a Filipino fashion designer working in Beijing, who declined to be named.

Rosalind Mitchell Aquino Cuevas, a Filipina contracts manager in a local company, has safety concerns but still does not feel the need to leave her job or the city.

"Different people have different opinions and you cannot avoid the fact that some could have taken it personally against Filipinos," said Cuevas.

"But for now, I don't have any reason to leave China, I am confident about the safety of our employees regardless of our nationality," said Cuevas.

However, the sentiment that Yu expressed appears to have sympathizers elsewhere in China.

"A bar near the one where I work stopped a Filipino band performing two days ago because it allegedly received pressure from the customers," said AI, a Filipino musician performing in a club in Shenyang, Liaoning Province.

"Some of my friends, who work in hotels, also felt threatened while constantly being asked 'where are you from and why you're still here?'" he told the Global Times.

Yesterday, the employees from Minder's and Swing, both bars in the Sanlitun area, said that Filipino bands have been performing in them for more than four years. The bars both said that the show remained the same and they have not received any complaints from customers.

"They have been playing in Swing for many years, and they are popular with the audience. I don't see any reason to change it in the club for any matter," said a female manager from Swing yesterday, who declined to be named.