This refers to Recah Trinidad’s July 14 column titled “Heroic Azkals: Not everybody happy.”
As a Filipino-American, I found the article very disgusting and hurtful in that there are individuals out there who do not consider us “Filipinos” just because we’re “half.” There are literally hundreds, even thousands of Fil-Ams like myself who wish to do nothing but good for our parents’ homeland, but the attitude of a few like Trinidad is very discouraging and disheartening. The Azkals have every right to play for the Philippine national team. Trinidad has no right to blame the team for the actions of the Philippine Football Federation and government officials. What baffles me is that the writer shamelessly singled out just Fil-foreigner players and not the entire squad which also consists of pure Filipinos. Lastly, professional journalists are supposed to be objective in their writings but Trinidad’s July 14 column clearly leans one way towards hatred against the Azkals.
Trinidad’s racist column against Fil-foreigners appalled me. I have Fil-foreigner friends abroad and they are very much offended. I demand that Trinidad issue a public apology to all foreign-based Filipinos with sons and daughters whose father or mother is a foreigner. Trinidad’s racial slur shouldn’t be permitted in our society or by a respected broadsheet like the Inquirer. It was irresponsible, and degraded the meaning of what a Filipino is.
—RED STAN,
riddicktowers@yahoo.com