WHERE IT HAPPENED. Elmer Cato, Consul General of the Philippine Consulate General in New York, tweeted this photo on Saturday (June 4, 2022) of the N Broadway Express of the New York City Subway where another Filipino was subjected to alleged racism. Cato said while inside the train, another woman wiped saliva on the Filipino, reportedly a boxing expert who punched the bully in return. (Twitter photo)
MANILA – A Filipino health worker who was at the receiving end of yet another alleged Asian hate in a New York subway, returned the disrespect with a punch, the Philippine Consulate General in New York said Saturday.
In a tweet, Consul General Elmer Cato reported that a woman spat and applied the saliva on the Filipino while riding the N Broadway Express in the New York City Subway in Manhattan City on June 4.
The offended Filipino health worker then punched her.
Without providing further details, the envoy accompanied the text with the hashtag #StopAsianHate.
"A woman picked on the wrong Asian on the N train this morning. She spat on her hand and wiped her saliva on a young Filipino hospital worker seated next to her. She then saw a few stars. Our kababayan (compatriot) comes from a family of boxing legends in the Philippines. #StopAsianHate," Cato said.
Most netizens said while they do not condone violence, they praised the Filipino for standing up to the bully.
In the past, several Filipino nationals experienced unprovoked assault and anti-Asian hate crimes in New York, which started more frequently at the onset of the pandemic.
On March 2022, a 67-year-old Filipino woman was seriously injured after she was brutally assaulted inside her apartment building in Yonkers, the second time an elderly Filipino was followed and assaulted while almost home.
According to the latest report of Stop Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate, Filipinos are third among the top anti-Asian hate victims in the United States.
Out of the 10,905 hate incidents recorded by AAPI from March 2020 to December 2021, 8.9 percent or at least 917 are Filipinos.
A majority of the incident took place on public streets and spaces and private residences, ranging from harassment, shunning, job discrimination, denial of service, being coughed at or spat upon, and physical assault. (PNA)
