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A Hong Kong columnist who has been the target of Filipino fury since describing the country as a "nation of servants" said Wednesday he was sorry if his satirical article caused offence.

Chip Tsao's apology comes after Hong Kong's Filipino community said it planned to hold a rally on Sunday to protest his column, which appeared in a local magazine last week.

"The article was never intended to be insulting to the Filipino domestic workers," he told AFP.

"English, being a global language, is open to different interpretations by those who come from various cultural backgrounds.

"Has anyone been deeply upset, it was never my intention and I feel sorry."

Tsao raised hackles by writing in HK Magazine that Manila's claims to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea were ridiculous in the face of Beijing's rival territorial claims.

"As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter," he wrote.

More than 100,000 Filipinos work in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong, mostly as low-paid domestic workers.

Tsao wrote in his column that he had warned his own maid that if she wanted a pay rise next year she should tell her compatriots the Spratlys belong to China.

Manila has since barred Tsao from entering the Philippines, despite the magazine issuing an apology, and local Filipinos have said they will hold a rally this Sunday.

Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said the rally, expected to attract thousands of marchers, would go ahead despite the apology.

"Mr Tsao's apology is recognised but we are appalled of his continued defence of the piece as a satire," she said.

"It was targeted towards a whole nation and a particular sector that made it nothing but a racial slur."

She denied that the article had been misunderstood.

"Does he mean it is our fault because we did not understand and just misinterpreted what he wrote?" she said.

"Such a pathetic defence just makes him sink even deeper in the quagmire of racism and discrimination and greatly lessens the sincerity of his apology."

HK Magazine is published by Asia City Publishing Group, which runs free English-language listings and lifestyle titles in several Asian cities, including Bangkok and Singapore.

The diplomatic dispute over the Spratlys, believed to sit atop vast mineral and oil deposits, was renewed early last month when China sent a patrol vessel to the area.

The move came after the Philippines passed a law laying claim to some of the disputed islands in the Spratlys chain. Beijing has called the law "illegal and invalid".

The chain of atolls and reefs is also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Tsao said his next column, due out Thursday, would be about a Nepalese man shot dead by a Hong Kong police officer last month.

from: yahoo.com news