PCG summons Pinay hikers who bared buttocks on HK mountain

Saret

Philippine Consulate General (PCG) officials yesterday (October 13) reminded a group of Filipino hikers to avoid indecent acts in public after they were photographed baring their buttocks after climbing a mountain here in Hong Kong.

Consul Paul Saret, PCG-Assistance to Nations Section chief, said the hikers who were photographed and their fellow group members went to the consulate yesterday to explain their side on the controversy, which erupted after the photos of their stunt spread online earlier this month.

Under HK’s Criminal Procedure Ordinance, acts of outraging public decency are punishable by up to seven years in prison.

“We told them that they could have been jailed if someone had filed a complaint with the police. What they did was illegal,” Saret said.

He said the hikers explained that they were a private group and did not mean to cause scandal. But they said there were other Filipinos who apparently snapped pictures when group members took off their lower garments after climbing a popular hiking trail in Kowloon.

“We reminded them that they could be charged with indecent exposure and end up being prosecuted,” Saret said.

He said the hikers were also reminded that their acts did not reflect well on the image of the more than 200,000 Filipino women who work here in Hong Kong.

“Don’t give Filipinos a bad name. And remember that after you are convicted and jailed here in Hong Kong, you are deported. So, you just don’t go to prison, you also lose your job,” Saret said.

“And most, if not all of us, came here to work. That should be our priority,” he added.

Saret said the hikers promised to go back to the consulate for another meeting because they had to go home early yesterday to avoid the anti-government protests in the afternoon.