Manila - A Hong Kong journalist was under fire in the Philippines on Sunday for calling the South-East Asian country a "nation of servants" in a column about disputed areas in the South China Sea.

In his March 27 column for HK Magazine, titled "The War At Home," Chip Tsao denounced the Philippines' claims to the Spratly Islands, which are also claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia.

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

Tsao said he gave his Filipino maid a "harsh lecture" on the issue and "sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots... that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China."

According to the magazine, Tsao is a best-selling author and columnist. He is a former reporter for the BBC.

The Blas F Ople Policy Center, a Manila-based non-governmental organization providing assistance to migrant workers, called on the Philippine labour department to blacklist Tsao as an "undesirable foreign employer."

Susan Ople, the center's chairwoman, said Tsao should not use his Filipino maid as a "pawn" in the dispute over the Spratly Islands.

"The household is not the place to resolve multiple claims to the Spratly Islands, and Filipino domestic workers should not suffer because of it," she said.

Ople added that Tsao's maid "deserve a sane and more humane employer while he deserves to clean up his own filth."

Congresswoman Risa Hontiveros Baraquel, a representative of a left-wing party, condemned the column and lamented that Tsao's "disgusting, derogatory and vile remark can only come from dim-witted and mediocre writing."

"The article reflects the attitude that promotes intolerance and abuse against Filipino domestic workers," she said.

On the magazine's website, Tsao has received numerous negative comments. While a couple of the commentators pointed out that Tsao could have been trying to be sarcastic and funny, they said he failed miserably.

"There is a point where irony done in very poor taste becomes not humorous, but crass, bigoted and stupid," one commenter said.

Several commenters noted that without Filipino maids in Hong Kong, the island's economy would not be prosperous because its professionals would not be able to work.

On March 2, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law defining the country's territorial boundaries and laying claims to disputed areas in the South China Sea.

The law identified a "regime of islands under the Republic of the Philippines" or areas over which the country exercises "sovereignty and jurisdiction."

Those areas include the Scarborough Shoal - a group of islets, atolls and reefs claimed by China - and Kalayaan Islands, a part of the Spratly Islands.

China strongly opposed the unilateral claim, saying the disputed areas "have always been parts of Chinese territory," and dismissing Arroyo's legislation as "illegal and invalid." (dpa)