Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim yesterday called on all Filipinos to denounce what he described as an attack made by a United States television show on former President Corazon Aquino, which branded her as a “slut.”
“If a highly respectable woman like the former President receives such treatment, how else can we expect our Filipino women to get the respect they deserve once they are abroad?” he said.
Lim added that if Filipinos “allow this kind of attack on the integrity of a woman who once held the highest position in the land, what would stop the world from debasing our women of lesser stature?”
“The Daily Show with John Stewart” showed a file photo of Aquino with word “slut,” a colloquial term for a woman of loose morals, underneath it. The show also featured other women leaders such as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in a similar manner.
The topic of discussion was whether or not the US is ready for a woman president, apparently in view of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid.
“The show tried but miserably failed to be funny,” Lim said.
He asked Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to undertake all measures to rectify the mistake and file a protest.
Lim, who was the chief of the Manila Police District when Aquino was president, said his former boss is a well-loved figure, an icon of democracy since she came into power following the ouster of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
Aquino was also the first woman president of the Philippines, was once cited by the Time Magazine as “Woman of the Year,” and was also the first woman president to address the US Congress, Lim said. – Evelyn Macairan