Reports of racism in the thriving Korean community here has cropped up anew after the Central Luzon director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) confirmed he himself had once been barred entry into a business establishment which turned out to be exclusively for Koreans.
“I tried to enter a beauty parlor along the Friendship area in Koreatown because I was told that a signage in Korean characters indicated that the place was exclusively for Koreans. I confirmed this when the security guard barred me from entry,” DOT director Ronnie Tiotuico admitted during a forum with the Capampangans in Media, Inc. over the weekend.
Angeles City councilor Jay Sangil said he, too, has heard such reports which he decried as racism.
Sangil said this was why he passed way back in 2008 a resolution “requiring all trade establishments and enterprises with signages, billboards, and other forms of advertisements with foreign characters and inscriptions to include translation in English.”
This city hosts the so-called Koreatown along the Circumferential Road south of Clark Freeport in Barangay Anunas. It consists of a strip of road flanked on either side mostly by Korean establishments that range from restaurants to hotels. Near this strip are real estate subdivisions occupied mostly by Koreans who have also established their own chapels.
Sangil noted that while signages at Korean establishments indicated in English the nature of their businesses, more characters in Korean had no translation.
When he was barred from entering a Korean establishment, Tiotuico said he was informed that the signage also indicated in Korean that the place was exclusively for Koreans.
Sangil called on the city government to strictly enforce his resolution on signages.
This, even as he batted for the creation of a task force composed of representatives from the police, non-government organizations, business sector, and the Korean community to ensure the safety of local Koreans and help familiarize them with Philippine laws.
“I have also heard reports of illegal gambling in the Korean community, but law enforcement secret agents find difficulty zeroing in on these because they are barred from exclusive Korean areas,” Sangil also said.
Tioutuico estimated no less than 15,000 Koreans permanently residing in this city. He said most of the foreigners who visit the Angeles and Clark area remain to be South Koreans.
