The Tasteless Food Group will meet with Lowbrow Casual Restaurants following the latter’s controversial social media post about PWD cards that sparked outrage for discriminating against persons with disabilities.
Tasteless, which shares a co-investor with Lowbrow Casual Restaurants, distanced itself from the controversy, stating it was “caught off guard” by the post and emphasized it has no involvement in Lowbrow’s operations.
“We are in complete disagreement with the message posted. We are in solace with the plight suffered by the PWD community and would never insult, humiliate, or belittle them with an insensitive post,” Tasteless Food Group said in a statement on Thursday, February 6.
“We will be in talks with Lowbrow Casual Restaurants regarding this,” it added.
“We will work hard to educate all our stakeholders, co-workers, employees, and even suppliers about what it means to be a person with disability, and the care, responsibility, and respect that we must have for each other,” Tasteless said.
The statement comes after Lowbrow Casual Restaurants’ post about fake PWD IDs went viral amid the crackdown on inauthentic cards.
In a now-deleted post, Lowbrow posted its opinion about the use of such cards with the caption: “Does someone u [you] know use a fake pwd [PWD] card?”
It was accompanied by an emoji of a face-covering-mouth emoji.
Lowbrow acknowledged the proliferation of fake PWD cards, but presented three scenarios of individuals with mental health disorders, saying it was “impossible to draw clean lines around what disorders should get a discount.”
It also gave three options on what people can do, which include “breaking one’s leg, becoming truly disabled, and showing them how superior your disability is.”
Lowbrow said that while their staff will do “nothing,” it was counting on the readers to “shame them until they go away.”
It operates the restaurants of Bad Bird, Fowlbread, Flowerboy, and Thank You Seafood.
Meanwhile, its posts have since been deleted but some Filipinos have already saved it for reference.
The statement earned the ire of Filipinos, who expressed their thoughts on the matter.
A Facebook user pointed out that some legitimate holders of PWD cards are already being treated differently by some restaurants because their conditions are not physical.
“These restaurants are getting so aggressive na to all PWD ID holders, especially those under psychosocial disability. Parang tingin nila basta hindi visible [‘yung] disability, eh peke na [‘yung] ID mo,” the user said.
“Lowbrow Casual Restaurants thought they were so cool making fun of people with mental health issues. They were encouraging people to be hostile towards PWD and call them satan,” she added.
“Eh paano naman ako, psoriasis at psoriatic arthritis, hindi naman visible all the time [‘yung] symptoms ko dahil nama-manage ko thru maintenance intake ko ng Methotrexate… So kapag invisible ay hindi na PWD?! Tatawaging Satan at pagtatawanan, ganun?!” another user said.
“I strongly disagree with the implied message that this restaurant group posted yesterday that people with invisible disabilities do not deserve the same respect and benefits as those with visible ones,” wrote a different Pinoy.
“You’d be surprised at how many people are fighting battles you can’t see. Cancer patients and survivors, for instance, often don’t ‘look’ sick or disabled, but they face immense physical, emotional, and financial challenges,” he added.
Lowbrow apologizes
Lowbrow eventually took down its controversial post and released an apology on their page on Wednesday, February 5.
“sorry,” it said in its caption.
“Many friends told us what we said was wrong. They are right. You should be angry with us,” Lowbrow said in a statement.
“We’ve been frustrated by our experiences with PWD IDs, so we dragged everyone into it unfairly. We were insensitive as we trivialised issues that we should have taken seriously. We’re very embarrassed and disappointed with ourselves. That was inexcusable,” it added.
“We understand if you doubt our sincerity, but we still want to apologise to those we hurt. We’re sorry, and it won’t happen again.
The apology, however, earned similar backlash from some Filipinos who thought it appeared insincere.
“Is this even a sincere apology?? Cancel this company,” a Facebook user commented.
“Useful PR tip — when [your] company gets called out for insensitive and ableist statements and [you] need to do damage control, maybe don’t continue to adopt the same insufferable smartass tone that got [you] in trouble in the first place, lmao,” another user wrote.
Under the law, PWDs are entitled to a 20% discount in availing of services of restaurants, hotels, and recreation centers, among others.
Last October, the Department of Justice clarified that PWDs are still entitled to the discount and the value-added tax exemption for food purchases shared with a group.
