Filipinos ranked third among the ethnicities that have become victims of hate crimes directed against Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States, according to the latest report released by Stop AAPI Hate, a broad coalition that gathers data on racially motivated attacks related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Stop AAPI Hate study covers the 9,081 incident reports it received from March 19, 2020 to June 30 this year.

The number of hate incidents reported to AAPI increased from 6,603 to 9,081 during April—June 2021. Of all incident reports, 4,548 hate incidents occurred in 2020 while 4,533 hate incidents were recorded in 2021.

According to the report released by the AAPI on August 12, 2021, the Chinese have reported more hate incidents (43.5%) than all ethnic groups, followed by Koreans (16.8%), Filipinos (9.1%), Japanese (8.6%), and Vietnamese (8.2%).

Of all hate incidents, 48.1 percent included at least one hateful statement regarding anti-China and/or anti-immigrant rhetoric.

On the types of discrimination against Asians, verbal harassment (63.7%) and shunning (16.5%) continue to make up the two largest proportions of the total incidents reported. Shunning means the deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The AAPI said the majority of incidents are “traumatic and harmful”, but not hate crimes.

Physical assault (13.7%) comprises the third-largest category of total reported incidents, followed by being coughed at or spat on (8.5%).

Civil rights violations such as workplace discrimination, refusal of service and being barred from transportation accounts for 11 percent of the total incidents while online harassment makes up 8.3 percent of total incidents.

While verbal harassment and shunning decreased from 69.5 percent and 20.6 percent in 2020 to 58 percent and 12.4 percent in 2021 respectively, incidents of physical assaults increased from 10.8 percent of the total hate incidents in 2020 to 16.6 percent in 2021.

Here are the other highlights of the Stop AAPI Hate latest report:

- Vandalism increased from 2.6% in 2020 to 4.9% in 2021.

- Online hate incidents increased from 6.1% in 2020 to 10.6% in 2021.

- More incidents occurred in public streets (36.6% in 2021 vs. 26.7% in 2020), public transit (8.8% in 2021 vs. 8.2% in 2020), and private residences (10.0% in 2021 vs. 8.9% in 2020).

- More seniors (60 years old and older) reported hate incidents in 2021, increasing from 6.5% in 2020 to 7.2% in 2021.

Among the Asian ethnic groups, the Chinese (43%) accounts for the most number of respondents or individuals who reported to Stop AAPI Hate followed by the Koreans (16.8%); Filipinos (9.1%); Japanese (8.2%); Taiwanese (6.1%); Indian (2.2%); Thai (1.9%); Cambodians (1.6%) and Lao (1.0%).

In May this year, US President Joe Biden signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act that seeks to expedite the review of anti-Asian hate crimes and making available federal grants to help curb the spate of attacks against Asians in many parts of the United States.

Prior to the enactment, the US Congress found that there were "nearly 3,800 reported cases of anti-Asian discrimination and incidents related to COVID-19 between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021, in practically all the States.