Taiwanese tourist fined for wearing skimpy string bikini in Boracay
PUBLISHED ONOctober 11, 2019 10:40 AMByRainer Cheung
[UPDATE, Oct 17]:
The boyfriend of a tourist fined for wearing a skimpy string bikini has spoken up in a letter to Apple Daily, pleading for netizens to stop circulating her photos. He claimed that the swimwear was bought locally, slamming reports that said she regularly dons such revealing bikinis in Taiwan.
Read more here.
Boracay may have just reopened just a year ago, but the sunny island famed for its pristine white beach has already made headlines for some not-so-sanitary news.
The latest piece of news surrounds one particular tourist's choice of attire.
A Taiwanese tourist in her 20s was arrested on Wednesday (Oct 9) after photos of her wearing a string bikini deemed to be overly skimpy on Boracay's conservative shores went viral.
Unlike regular bikinis, her swimwear had covered only the bare minimum and was held up by mere strings, leaving much exposed. In fact, Jess Baylon, the police chief of the Municipality of Malay even said: "It was literally a string."
Her outlandish attire caused a stir amongst several residents and tourists, who took photos of her and circulated them on the internet.
The island's netizens had mixed reactions about her bold attire. While some didn't see anything wrong with it, many others found the bikini indecent and disrespectful.
This incident caught the attention of the Boracay Inter-Agency Rehabilitation Management Group, after which police tracked the couple's hotel and brought them to the police station on the following evening.
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According to Baylon, the tourist thought there was nothing wrong with her attire, claiming that it was what she normally wore in Taiwan.
She added that it was just a form of expression as she felt comfortable in her body.
"Maybe it is her way of expressing how they appreciate the island and the beauty of her body, but in our conservative culture, this is unacceptable," Baylon told Panay News.
Boracay doesn't specifically prohibit the wearing of very skimpy swimsuits, therefore the tourist was made to pay a fine of 2,500 pesos (S$67) for violating a law that prohibits the taking and display of "lewd" photographs instead.
The couple is scheduled to depart on Oct 11 but not before they've paid the fine.
rainercheung@asiaone.com