Immigration arrests mar Fashion Week
By Cheche Moral
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:26:00 06/01/2008
Filed Under: Laws, Fashion, Lifestyle & Leisure
MANILA, Philippines - Thursday night wasn’t a good night to be good-looking—or at least mestizo-looking—in this country.
A few minutes after the last of three shows in the Philippine Fashion Week on Thursday evening, about 10 plainclothesmen, introducing themselves as agents from the Commission on Immigration and Deportation, barged into the backstage of the SMX Convention Center in the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City, where the series of shows were being held, and herded every single model who looked even remotely “foreign.”
“Like neighborhood thugs, the agents manhandled the foreign-looking models,” a witness told the Inquirer.
“They were grabbing people by the arm,” said the witness, who requested anonymity. “They were shouting, ‘Sumama ka sa amin! Umupo ka diyan!’ They were bastos to everyone. And no one was resisting arrest.”
Defying orders
One Caucasian-looking Filipino male model defied orders for him to stay put and rushed outside to get his driver’s license from his car to prove his nationality.
The agents left with three male Latin Americans who reportedly had no proper documentation. The hullabaloo happened in just an hour, according to the witness.
Joey Espino of Runway Productions, executive producer and director of the shows, said he learned of the incident only after it happened.
“It’s the [modeling agency] agent’s responsibility to get proper documentation for the [foreign] models,” he said in a phone interview. “We are the clients here.” Among 80 models booked for the shows, he said only five or six are non-Filipinos.
“Three years ago, the issue about foreign models without work permits was already raised, so I thought all agents were already working on this,” he said. “We held an open call, and our responsibility as client was only to make sure the models had the right measurements for the clothes.”
Cal Carrie’s, the modeling agency also headed by Espino, isn’t representing foreign models at the moment “as our thrust for the past four years is to promote Filipino models abroad.”
Some foreign models were booked, he said, as “we want Philippine Fashion Week to have global appeal, so one day when we attract the foreign market, they could better relate to Filipino designers.”
Apologetic agent
Espino said the agent of the models who were arrested had sent him a text message apologizing for the incident. No one from the immigration bureau informed him about the impending arrests. “I guess it was not properly disseminated to all agencies,” he said.
Of the three who were taken into custody, Espino said, only one of them had a booking for one more show in the PFW, which runs until June 3. Similar incidents had happened in the fashion weeks of Singapore and Hong Kong, he said.
“This is an eye opener for everyone,” he said. “First, for models and agents to do their part and get the proper permits. Second, for Filipino models to learn from this when they work in foreign markets.”
But one Filipino model, who is among many who insist that foreign models take away jobs from locals, said she appreciates that the government is finally doing something about the issue, but she disagrees with the way it was handled.
“Sana naman more humane,” she said. “It’s not like they killed anybody. Kawawa naman ‘yung ginawa sa kanila… I’ve also worked abroad and I had to get a permit. I just hope they do the same thing… I don’t think anyone was prepared for what happened. I don’t know how [the CID agents] got in as even us have to show our IDs to get backstage. Pang-sindak talaga.”
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