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The boyfriend of a woman who was fined for her itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie bikini says he’s to blame for the controversy.
Earlier this month, the woman, a Taiwanese tourist visiting the Philippine island of Boracay, was cited by police following complaints over what Philippine officials deemed an “erotic and lewd” display on one of the island’s beaches.
Pictures of the woman in her string bikini soon went viral on social media, but the woman’s boyfriend says he now feels guilty for all of the attention she received.
The woman, who was visiting the Philippines with her boyfriend, allegedly wore the skimpy outfit to the beach on a bet, according to the boyfriend. (Tristan Gelito Padilla/Philippine News Agency)
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The man recently spoke out about the incident to Taiwan’s Apple Daily, where he explained that he and his girlfriend bought the bikini after arriving in Boracay, and that she only agreed to wear the bikini in public after losing a bet they had made. The terms of the bet were not immediately clear.
She first wore the swimsuit out of the hotel on a Wednesday but was informed by the staff that it wasn’t appropriate, according to a news release issued by the Philippine government.
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“They were told not to by the hotel management, but they said it was a form of art,” said Natividad Bernardino, chief of the Boracay Inter-Agency Management and Rehabilitation Group (BIAMRG) in the news release.
She then wore a string bikini to the beach the following day but was apprehended by authorities during her return to the hotel.
The woman was fined 2,500 PHP (or around $49) for “display of erotic and lewd picture,” the BIAMRG confirmed.
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Officials also clarified that the beach does not have a dress code, but stated that tourists are expected to follow and respect the country’s customs.
“We have our own cultural values as Filipinos and Asians. They should be able to respect that,” Bernardino said in a phone interview. “Maybe it is just common sense.”
The woman’s boyfriend now claims that, while he feels guilty, neither he nor his girlfriend is fully to blame for the incident, questioning why a bikini they bought in Boracay would be illegal to wear on the beaches. He also argued that he and his girlfriend were not taking or distributing the photos of her bikini, which is what they were actually cited for, and claims that their fellow beachgoers should be the ones who should be fined for “display of erotic and lewd picture.”
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The man added that the international attention has caused them a fair amount of distress, and ruined part of their vacation. Neither he nor his girlfriend felt comfortable venturing out of the hotel in the following days, as they were being recognized from photos.
“We were not the ones who took and spread those photos, yet we were the ones who were penalized," he said, per a translation of Apple Daily provided by Asia One.
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