Loren tells Baldwin: Filipinas are not for sale,
not even to Hollywood actors

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday condemned a statement by actor Alec Baldwin about getting a Filipina mail-order bride, saying that it was "tasteless, chauvinist and racist, even if it was meant to be a joke."

"Isn't it that when you order something, you pay for it?" said Loren in reaction to Baldwin's comment on the David Letterman Show. "Thus, I say to them, Filipino women are not for sale, not even to Hollywood actors [like Baldwin].

The practice of taking mail-order brides, aside from being illegal in the Philippines, is just one step removed from prostitution, Loren stressed.

"Women in general should not be treated as commodities to be ordered like fastfood or a pair of jeans to be discarded at the whim of the buyer," she said.

"I condemn all forms of commoditization and objectification of women."

Loren urged Baldwin to issue a public apology over the remark which had created an uproar and irate remarks from Filipinos worldwide upon the interview's uploading into the internet video website youtube.

The practice of taking mail-order brides involves the sending of the profiles of women, including photographs and videos, to men who wish to have pre-arranged marriages.

Republic Act 6955 or the Anti-Mail Order Bride Law had banned the practice in the Philippines, but not before numerous Filipino women had found themselves living hellish existences as "mail-order brides."

"The term bride is a misnomer too in mail-order operations because unions are often not solemnized by marriage. What had happened in the past are simple transactions, as if the women are goods to be selected, bought, used, abused and discarded."

Loren said that she will never let pass demeaning characterizations against Filipinos, which she said had been aplenty, including the meaning given by a dictionary to the word "Filipina" as a "domestic helper" during the time of President Cory Aquino.

A few months back, a BBC comedy show had earned the ire of Filipinos worldwide when it showed a purported Filipina househelp being treated as a sex object by the skit's main character.