Manila, Philippines – Three top Philippine senators came to the defense of Filipino American Robert Lopez who just bagged an Oscar award as co-composer of the song “Let It Go,” from the Disney animated film, “Frozen.”  By winning the Oscar, Lopez joins an elite few who have won in all of the top and prestigious American awards such as the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar and the Tony, more popularly know in the entertainment world as “EGOT.”

The three senators were Ramon “Bong’ Revilla, Jr. , Manuel “Lito” Lapid and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.  All were former movie actors in the Philippines.  They criticized the U.S. media for referring to Lopez as “EGOT winner.”  “Egot” is a derogatory Filipino slang word often used to belittle or make fun of dark-skinned or black people.

In a statement read during today’s session of the Philippine Senate, Revilla, Lapid and Sotto accused the U.S. media of being racist and insensitive. “We are extremely proud of the honor that Lopez has brought to our country and to characterize him as such (“egot”) is unbecoming of Americans who pride themselves as the most ethnically and culturally sensitive people in the world,” they said.

The two senators were joined in the signed protest statement by their senate colleagues who also have some connection to film and the media, namely: Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada whose father, former Philippine president and now mayor of Manila Joseph Estrada  was a movie actor; Loren Legarda, who was a television journalist; and Grace Poe, daughter of real-life husband and wife actors Fernando Poe, Jr. and Susan Roces.