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ONE of the Philippines' most popular and controversial TV personalities has reluctantly apologised after making a six-year-old boy cry on his show by forcing him to simulate a striptease.
The government accused Willie Revillame and the TV5 network (on which his show appears) of child abuse over the incident, which also caused uproar on the internet with one Facebook critic labelling him a 'national jerk'.
"The sequence shows the boy gyrating in a distasteful manner," Social Welfare Minister Corazon Soliman said in a statement.
"Putting pressure on children to mimick adult dances, in exchange for a certain amount of money, and at the expense of being laughed at and ridiculed by hundreds of people, clearly traumatises the child."
The incident occurred on the March 12 edition of the Willing Willie early evening programme, in which contestants win cash, cars and other prizes if they perform various acts to the crowd's amusement.
The boy earned 10,000 pesos (BD86) for the effort.
"He's obviously doing it with a heavy heart, but he has to do it for his family," Revillame said during the dance, with the footage going viral on video sharing and social networking Internet sites.
One clip has drawn half a million hits on YouTube.
TV5 issued a qualified apology on behalf of the network and Revillame.
"Mr Willie Revillame, the producers of Willing Willie and TV5 sincerely and deeply apologise for the segment of the show featuring (the boy) which viewers may have found offensive or in bad taste," it said in a statement.
Revillame also hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in 2006 after 70 people were killed in a stampede while lining up for his previous television game show.
