I have already written a long piece about American Jimmy Sieczka who posted a video called “20 Reasons Why I Dislike the Philippines”; the 14-minute video has been circulating in social networking sites. The content of the video, fully shot in Cebu, revolved around Jimmy being annoyed (to the point of him swearing profanely) at what he thought are Filipinos’ defective way of life — unsanitary food on streets, Filipinos using whitening creams, heavy traffic and pollution, untrained security guards, abundance of non-English-speaking Koreans, napkins cut into small sizes, and many more. Jimmy claimed that he has been living and working in Cebu City in the last three and half years.

Read: Koreans in Philippines Are Obnoxious; Hang Out Like F*cking Wolves Says Jimmy Sieczka.

On Monday, March 19th, the City of Cebu has reacted to the buzz. Sun-Star’s article “Video ‘embarrasses Cebu, country’” said that City Councilor Sisinio Andales wanted Jimmy Sieczka declared “persona non grata” in the city. He will file a resolution before the City Council next week.

“Iyang gipakatap sa tanan nga way ayo diri, nga it’s not fun to be in the Philippines”. Andales said this is in contrast to the tourism promotion slogan of the Department of Tourism “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.”

Also, according to The Manila Times, Mayor Michael Rama of Cebu City condemned the video content. However, Rama has a different way of looking at it:

“Maging eye-opener na lang siguro. Kaysa magalit, panatilihin na lang ang kalinisan at kaayusan sa Lungsod kasi in some point, tama rin naman sya [Perhaps it should serve as an eye-opener. Instead of being angry, just maintain cleanliness and order, to a certain extent, he has valid points]”

Jimmy Sieczka already explained that his goal in posting the video was to spark changes in the country in an unconventional way.

“…For those that actually get the piece and realize I’m just stating the obvious in an unconventional way in order to spark change, thank and salamat! With this many people watching, it proofs that there needs to be some more positive changes to the Filipino communities. Never once did I use the word hate in the piece. I simply pointed out issues that have been overlooked for quite some time.”

Here are more comments from Sunstar’s “Take ‘hate video’ constructively: tourism players.”

“I really don’t know the real intention of this exercise, but whether we like it or not, it may affect to certain degree our efforts to promote our city and our country. We cannot control how foreigners express their observation and experiences during their visit. Let’s simply take it positively, move on and do corrective measures altogether. The video is a good wake-up call that we still have many areas of concern to improve” — Newly-elected Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Prudenco Gesta

“While a couple of things were true and painful to accept, many of them were superficial and ignorant. With the advent of the Internet we have to be ready for attacks and unfavorable publicity like this.” — Tourism stakeholder Jay Aldeguer

“I think it (the video) is a combination of being hilarious, offensive, true, exaggerated, nit-picking, etc. I prefer to laugh about it and take it constructively.” — Cebu Business Club president Dondi Joseph

Which side are you? Do you agree with Jimmy? Do you want the City of Cebu to declare him as “Persona Non Grata”? Or should we just take this video as another social satire that we watch one day and forget the next day?

Leave your comments below.

Update: Jimmy Sieczka issued an apology for making the video.