The Philippine Consulate in New York says a ranking female officer there suffered through a verbal attack aboard the city’s uptown D train Friday, reports ABS-CBN.
“So our colleague reported that as soon as she stepped on the train she was accosted by an individual who started asking her ‘Where did you come from? Where’d you come from?’ And then the he said ‘you should go back to your country.’ He said the F-word and then he said ‘all you should die’,” said Consul General Elmer Cato.
He declined to name the Filipina diplomat involved, but said this is the 13th Filipino national to report race-based harassment in New York City alone. Nationwide, the Filipino community has been sounding alarms.
“Filipinos are advised to exercise utmost caution in view of these incidents. Those who experience attacks are advised to immediately call 911 to report incidents,” the Philippine Embassy in Washington warned back in February, according to Phil Star.
It asked authorities around the country to protect Filipinos and others of Asian descent after a string of attacks nationwide against Filipinos.
According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate, nearly 9 percent of all reports of anti-Asian Hate to the group have come from Filipinos. That’s the third highest, topped by Chinese Americans at 44% and Korean Americans at 16.6%. Vietnamese American are right behind Filipinos with 8.3%.
“So we again request the assistance of authorities here in NYC to ensure that members of the Filipino community, members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community would feel safer while they are out there,” said Cato. “We have been made aware that the 40% of homeless individuals here in NYC have mental health issues and we hope that authorities in New York would take the necessary measures to address this concern as most if not all incidents of Asian hate crimes involve individuals with mental health issues.”
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