INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
Motorcycle-hailing app Angkas on Wednesday apologized for a tweet likening its services to “having sex,” after being called out by irate netizens and the Philippine National Police (PNP), which has otherwise kept mum on similar crude remarks by President Duterte.
Angkas—popular among Twitter users for its rough-hewn, slapdash humor—has since deleted its tweet, calling it a misstep that wasn’t intended to make users “feel unsafe and cast doubt on the integrity of our service.”
“Words and analogies are meant to help us connect with our audience,” it said in a statement. “But in this case, we’ve missed the mark.”
Scary but fun
The tweet, which compared taking an Angkas ride to “having sex for the first time—scary but fun when done over and over again,” got hundreds of likes and retweets before it was quote-tweeted by the Philippine National Police.
“This is not acceptable to commuters. Angkas will scare people off with this. This is not promoting public safety in transport,” the PNP said.
Zeny Bernardo, coconvenor of the #BabaeAko movement, said that the tweet unintentionally threw malice on bike-sharing, a service that requires body contact.
But the PNP’s “selective criticism” also did not escape the attention of Bernardo and Joms Salvador of women’s rights group, Gabriela.
Both agreed that while it was laudable for the police to call out those who step out of line, it must also be consistent.
“Even when the President, for a time, was spewing sexist statements almost every week, they have done nothing,” Salvador said.