A Twitter post by motorcycle-hailing service Angkas has set off an online firestorm in the Philippines. - PHOTOS: TWITTER/ANGKAS
MANILA, June 10 (The Straits Times/ANN): The Philippines’ largest motorcycle-hailing company has been criticised online over a Twitter post that gender and child rights advocates say trivialises incest and rape.
On Thursday, Angkas, which translates to “hitch a ride”, posted on Twitter an illustration of a girl with half her body sticking out of a car’s sunroof, a pained look on her face.
The ad says “Stepdad, I’m stuck (in traffic)”, followed by “What are you doing, stepdad?”
The post was meant to support the company’s “AngkasDaddy” marketing campaign promoting its parcel delivery service.
But it struck a nerve, as activists and irate users of Angkas’ service said it strongly alluded to a popular trope among online adult sex sites known as “stepfamily porn”.
“This is a bad ad. You’re a male-led and male-dominated company promoting incest and unhealthy sexual power dynamics in an ad,” Ms Hya Bendana, an organiser of the public transport advocacy group Move As One Coalition, said in a post on Twitter, which has been seen more than 3 million times.
Ms Ash Presto, a sociology professor and gender rights activist at the Ateneo de Manila University, said the ad abets “a silent pandemic of incest rape in the Philippines, especially victimising adolescent girls”.
“How disgusting is it that a male-dominated company is not only normalising, but even promoting this kind of behaviour?” she said.
A 2017 report on the online news site Rappler said one in three sexual abuse cases in the country documented by the Social Welfare Ministry from 2011 to 2016 involved incest.
Most of the victims were girls 14 to 17 years old. But cases involving girls aged five and younger had also been reported.
Responding to the deluge of criticisms, Angkas took down the post and apologised for it.
“It was not our intention, nor will we ever support or permit even the slightest disregard of women’s rights and human dignity,” the company said.
Angkas was founded in 2016 by Singaporean Angeline Tham, who now runs the company with her Filipino husband, Mr George Royeca.
The ride-hailing company currently has more than 27,000 motorcycle riders serving mostly commuters in Metro Manila, a sprawling metropolis of 16 cities and home to over 13 million, according to its website.
The response to its service has mostly been positive in a nation where traffic moves at a turtle’s pace of 4.9 minutes per kilometre, and commuters spend close to four hours a day, or 38 days a year, commuting.
But Angkas has also been marketing its services in a way that many see as crass or too risque as it reaches out to its main base of customers: low- and middle-income earners who cannot afford to buy their own cars but are willing to pay extra to cut their commute time.
In 2019, the company issued a public apology after touching off a social media firestorm with a claim that its motorcycle-based service was “like sex”.
“Angkas is like sex. It’s scary the first time but fun to do over and over again,” the company posted on its official Twitter account.
Angkas deleted the tweet and issued a disclaimer and apology after being called out by the Philippine police.
“Safety has always been our brand’s priority, and we apologise for how our recent tweet has made users feel unsafe and cast doubt on the integrity of our service,” Ms Tham said at the time.
“Sex should never be used to create shame, fear, or disgust, and certainly not used lightly for the sake of some buzz.” - The Straits Times/ANN
