Government MP Dale Butler has condemned anti-Filipino graffiti that appeared in Paget.The crude messages including ‘Get out Filipino’ were scrawled in permanent marker onto the walls of the S Hill Belco substation, the bus stop near Modern Mart grocery store and in various places along the nearby railway trail. The area is said to be home to a large number of guest workers from the Philippines.“I am very concerned about it, as I would be concerned about any nationality,” said Mr Butler, adding that he had seen similar messages in other parts of the Island. “We are a peaceful, loving Country. [Filipino expatriates] are not refugees; we invited all these people into the Country.”Mr Butler who is married to a Filipino condemned the graffiti and the rising anti-Filipino sentiment among parts of the community.“My personal involvement with the Filipinos is that they bend over backwards to respect Bermuda’s laws, and when they are not sure they will ask. Their main interest is to provide the service they were hired for.”The former Cabinet Minister said he thought anti-Filipino feeling in the Country arose partly from their growing population here, but also from the present economic climate and the perception that Filipinos were succeeding at the expense of Bermudians.Lisa Lister, of the Human Rights Commission, responded to the graffiti by reminding the public that “it is illegal to display, publish or post any discriminatory sign, symbol or notice against any person or persons based on the grounds as set out in Section 2(2) of the Human Rights Act, 1981, which includes a person’s race, place of origin, colour, or ethnic or national origins”.“Further, every person has equal dignity and an obligation to respect the rights of others,” she said.A statement from the Association of Filipinos in Bermuda and The Club 2000, a related Filipino association, said they found the graffiti unfortunate, but likely the work of one culprit.“In most cases like this it is a disgruntled individual who has asked out a Filipino worker and been turned down, because she is not interested in a relationship,” the statement said.“More than likely because she is married with children, who has left her husband and children at home and come half way around the world to work and support them.”The statement also questioned the view that Filipino expatriates send most, if not all of their earnings home, a charge often levelled on local talk radio.“Yes we do send home what little money we can to support our families, just like people from the other nations do. But we live here in Bermuda like you do. We pay rent, sometimes being overcharged by the landlord, because they know we won’t go to the Rent Commissioner and complain.“We use public transportation, we buy food, we buy clothes, we pay payroll tax, we pay into the Social Insurance fund, out of which most of us will never collect.”Meanwhile, Mr Butler said that he would ask the Minister of Works and Engineering to have any xenophobic graffiti painted over, adding “if he doesn’t do it, I will go out and do it myself”.