TORONTO – The much celebrated "Fight of the Century” between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is over. But in Toronto, a new fight has just begun: the fight against Pinoy stereotypes.

This after a Toronto newspaper columnist labeled Pinoys in Las Vegas as mainly nannies in an editorial published during the match.



Rosie DiManno’s column in the Toronto Star came out on fight day, May 2.



More than two weeks later, Filipinos are still furious with the remark.

Some feel offended when caregivers are not respected for the hard work they do.



"It’s connected to the courses of nursing, and in the Philippines, nursing is a very high level, right?" said Toronto resident, Marie Joy.



Caregiver Geraldine Lucas was offended too.

"Very offensive po yun at very discriminatory kasi di naman po lahat nanny nang dumating sa Canada or sa US from the Philippines. We are all professionals," she said.



Another Toronto resident Tony Ducepec added, "I think it’s a very inaccurate statement for Filipino living and working abroad."



But DiManno told Balitang America that she did not mean to offend anyone with her column.

In an email, DiManno said there is no adverse inference in being a Filipino nanny, saying it is as noble a job as any other.

She added statistics show that there are a great number of Filipinos working as nannies in both Canada and the U.S and there was absolutely no offense intended.

DiManno insists she never considered it a racially-loaded remark.



Toronto Star editors have issued a column apologizing for the lack of oversight prior to the editorial's publication after a Filipino reader complained on the racist and derogatory stereotyping of Filipino nannies in DiManno's article.

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