Columnist quits after courting ire of droves of OFWs

Malu Fernandez, lifestyle columnist of Manila Standard, resigned from the paper and the travel magazine she used to write for after getting the ire of readers, particularly Filipino overseas workers in Dubai, a statement posted on blogsites and sent to the GMANews.TV email said.

“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," Fernandez said in the statement forwarded to GMANews.TV Thursday evening.

Fernandez's resignation came after readers reacted to an article she wrote for the newspaper and the magazine that apparently made fun of OFWs travel style.

Describing her flight from Dubai to Manila, Fernandez wrote that she would rather “slash" her wrists than be “trapped in a plane" with Filipino overseas workers.

Her article, “From Boracay to Greece," has been drawing a slew of heated words from all over the blogosphere, particularly from a group of overseas Filipino journalists in Dubai, who demanded a public apology from her and her resignation from the newspaper and the magazine.

The Filipino Press Club-Dubai has posted a statement at the website Tingog.com demanding Fernandez to apologize to the more than 200,000 Filipino migrant workers there who felt “insulted" by her story.

“The incident recounted in her flight via Dubai to Manila in which she berated fellow Filipinos (who had already endured the misfortune of working away from their families) on board Emirates for wearing “cheap" perfumes had no significant bearing to her story," the group said.

The Filipino Press Club-Dubai is composed of professional journalists from the print, broadcast and web-based media in the United Arab Emirates. It particularly reacted to a paragraph in Fernadez’s article where she narrated her horrid ordeal with the Filipino migrant workers during her flight home at the airline's economy section.

Fernandez in her statement said she was "humbled" by the "vehement and heated" response to her article. She said the article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against OFWs.

“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," her satement said.

Fernandez claimed that because of the article she became a subject of hate blogs, a target of death threats and personal insults.

“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." Fernandez said.

Fernandez said she now truly understands the “insidiousness of discrimination and prejudice disguised as humor."

“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," she said.

There was still no statement from Manila Standard and Peoples Asia whether Fernandez's resignation was accepted. - GMANews.TV