The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) is demanding an apology from independent film director Rafael Santos after the comments he made last month in an interview with ANC’s “Cityscape.”

In the interview, Santos reportedly said he usually gets theater actors because he “personally find[s] the theater actors are better to work with because they don’t complain.”

“You can feed them Skyflakes 3 meals a day and pay them in cat food basically,” he said.

“They’re never late. They cry when you want them to cry. ….. So that’s why I like working with theater people,” Santos added.

Santos is the director of the short film “Samarito,” which is an entry in this year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival, and stars theater actors.

Santos later apologized.

“I am truly sorry for the things I said especially because it is not what I think about theater actors. They are the best to work with and they do it for the passion of art,” he said.

Santos added that “the lesson here is awareness in what you will say because it can hurt.”

In an official statement PETA said theater actors do not deserve what Santos has said and that they “must be given due respect.”

PETA added that although they are aware that Santos already apologized to Cinemalaya about the incident, they still want “a public apology on television addressed directly to the theater community.”

{youtube}OiMg8v9mUfw{/youtube}