Was Taylor Kitsch harassed in the Philippines or Indonesia?

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I got numerous tweets and comments from last night’s entry, I-Cringe: Taylor Kitsch Tells NAIA Experience To Letterman.

Some of the valid points raised:
1) “Think everything twice first people. If the great Oliver Stone indeed was filming Savages, with an ensemble cast, in the Philippines, it should have made bigger news than The Bourne Legacy. This is Oliver Stone we’re talking about!
I heard Savages is being filmed in Indonesia, where there is an equally problematic corruption situation. Maybe Letterman confused our country with Indonesia and Taylor had no opportunity to correct him. But then again of course, this does not avert the fact that Philippine Customs has a very bad track record when it comes to transparency and good governance (read: KURAKOT!).” — Comment from a reader

My note: I wish these commenters would write their real names so I can give them credit. Pero oo nga naman. If these people were anywhere near the islands, all the stalkers and starf*ckers in town would’ve tweeted it already.

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2) Check out all these Bali pics from the filming of Savages:

Taylor Kitsch (Chon), Oliver Stone, Aaron Johnson (Ben) and Moritz Borman (Producer)
L-R: Taylor Kitsch, Oliver Stone, Aaron Johnson, and Moritz Borman

Take note the airport signs behind Taylor Kitsch—so not Filipino

Taylor Kitsch in Bali

Take note, cast member Aaron Johnson with the locals—they don’t look Filipino to me
(P.S. No offence, mas maganda tayo ng slight)

Aaron Johnson with locals

3) Commissioner of Customs Ruffy Biazon certainly did his homework. Read his blog entry which should put the matter to rest. CLICK!

P.S. I don’t think it’s necessary to demand an apology. I think we should just stop talking about it. And you?

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  • LolKittunz

    We are not “Malays”. That term actually only correctly applies to the Ethnic Malays, the majority population of Malaysia. Calling Indonesians and Filipinos “Malays” is like calling Filipinos “Bataks” or calling Indonesians “Bisaya”.

    The Malay name is an obsolete artifact from the American education system, based on the ancient racial classifications which put all Southeast Asians and some Pacific Islanders under the wrong name.

    But you are correct in that Indonesians and Filipinos are both Austronesians (as are Malaysians, the natives of New Zealand, Micronesia, Polynesia (including Hawaii), pre-Chinese colonization Taiwan, and Madagascar). We all share the same ancestors of ancient expert sailors who colonized islands as far away as Madagascar near Africa to Rapa Nui near South America long before any other civilizations had built ocean-going ships. Outrigger canoes, catamarans, trimarans, etc. are all Austronesian inventions.

    That said, the girls in the picture (whom I personally think are actually very good-looking kids) are Melanesians (primarily natives of Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia, and parts of Australia). They’re not Austronesians, but our peoples have intermixed with them to a large degree. In fact, our peoples have been neighbors for so long that Austronesian and Melanesian culture and languages are pretty much the same in most instances.

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  • covina movie goer

    It can almost be guaranteed, if we allow taylor kitsch and david letterman get away with their irresponsible comments, it will be like inviting other people to verbally attack us. 

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  • cooldoods

    i’m sure people in the Tourism department are monitoring this to see if the Kitsch story has had any effect on visitor turnout. If so, I think the stakeholders in the tourism industry would want the Philippine government to vigorously get the word out that Kitsch made a mistake. If the situation warrants that we should publicly demand an apology for this besmirch on our reputation as a tourist destination, do it. If there has been no effect, no sense in making a lingering issue out of it and highlighting the role of our neighbor Indonesia.

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  • Sugar

    No apology needed..hindi ikagaganda ng airport natin ang apology…just saying..

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  • http://twitter.com/iamMJae MJ Advincula

    About number 2: Actually, depending on where you are in the Philippines, chances are you can find Filipinos who look like those kids in the picture.

    Just saying.

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  • Jayson Ng

    Regarding the last picture.  There may be Filipinos that look like that.  Think of our ethnic minorities.

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  • http://chuvaness.com CVS

    thank you.

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  • http://chuvaness.com CVS

    God, don’t take everything I say seriously. :)

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  • http://twitter.com/danielisbored Daniel Lampa

    Baka nakita ni Taylor Kitsch ang poster ni Christian Bautista sa Indonesia kaya na confuse siya. Next Issue please!

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    CVS Reply:
    March 4th, 2012 at 3:44 PM

    LOL!

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  • Jill

    Every trip I make back home, I always anticipate being “hassled” by Customs or anyone working at the airport for that matter.  But sorry to disappoint anyone, I actually have very good things to say.  Nobody hassles me, nobody even makes any “move” (knock on wood).  My husband, who is not Filipino, is an obvious target- but surprisingly, nobody aims at him.  Siguro hindi siya mukhang may datung!

    If I may add my humble two cents on the matter, if we forego the “lagay” so we’re not given a hard time then maybe…  Just maybe, all else will follow.  If, as travelers, we refuse to give in to this kind of behavior by customs officials, they won’t demand or get used to that practice.  Kung walang maglalagay, walang mamimihasa.  The end.

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  • kit

     I AGREE. 

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  • http://www.topazhorizon.com Topaz Horizon

    Great post! Ako rin, when I heard about this, napakamot ng ulo talaga. I just can’t believe that these huge stars were in the country and we (aka OK! magazine plus all of our Hollywood-crazed fans) didn’t know about it. But unlike your other smart readers, I didn’t really question it kasi nga I have heard so many horror stories about our Customs/Immigration. Although ako mismo never pa nagka-bad experience :)

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  • http://twitter.com/jematoms Jem DC

    Thanks for pointing out these facts. Some people did jump the gun too fast.  It’s not fair to our BOC/NAIA officers to accuse them without verifying the story first. Our immigration & customs officials may be corrupt but i don’t think they’d go as far as ask for an iPhone. Cash lang ang hinihingi nila para pang kape/pang yosi (at mas madaling itago).

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  • retortingjk

    Whoa! My comment got posted! :D With all these pieces of evidence, I think the score is settled then.

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  • http://twitter.com/karl_much Karlo Layno Morelos

    let’s just all move on..back to regular programming :)

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    CVS Reply:
    March 3rd, 2012 at 8:36 AM

    i agree :)

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  • trina

    ay starf*ckers pala ang tawag sa kanila ms C! may bago nanaman akong natutunan sa’yo. =) sa totoo lang, nakakasawa na ang tweets with matching pic nila kasama ang kung sino mang hollywood star ang nasa pinas. naisip ko lang, dapat ata ang mga starf*ckers na ito ang kuning consultant ng dot! ang gagaling nila sa “promotions” eh…  

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  • sugarcages

    He was the guy in Kickass. 

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  • http://dontaskmetosmile.wordpress.com/ dontaskmetosmile

    “(P.S. No offence, mas maganda tayo ng slight)” – WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That’s all I’ll say about that.

    No apologies required, really. But the fact that we all so easily believed that this actually happened in NAIA proves one thing: there are still A LOT of corrupt officials in customs, immigrations (and even in POEA) and something still needs to be done about that, Taylor Kitsch or no.

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  • http://twitter.com/BubblesMagpayo Angela G. Magpayo

    Tama ka! Wag nang palakihin at pwede ba, wag gawing persona non grata si Taylor Kitsch at David Letterman :D

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