Filipino who
made ‘xenophobic, inflammatory’ remarks convicted under Sedition
Act
SINGAPORE: Philippine national Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, 28, who
made disparaging remarks about Singaporeans on Facebook earlier
this year, pleaded guilty to three charges on Wednesday (Aug
26).
He was convicted on one count under the Sedition Act, for
promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility, and on two counts of
providing false information to police. An additional charge under
the Sedition Act, and another for lying to police, will be taken
into consideration during sentencing.
In his Facebook post, Bello called Singaporeans "loosers (sic)
in their own country". "We take their jobs, their future, their
women, and soon, we will evict all SG loosers out of their own
country", Bello added, saying that Singapore would be the "new
Filipino state".
The Filipino also stated that he would be "praying that
disastors (sic) strike Singapore and more Singaporeans will die".
He will "celebrate" if this happens, he said.
He ended his Facebook post with the declaration: "REMEMBER PINOY
BETTER AND STRONGER THAN STINKAPOREANS."
Bello did this while employed as a nurse at Tan Tock Seng
Hospital, which subsequently dismissed him over the incident, after
discovering through their own investigations that Bello had made
three other online posts in the same vein in 2014.
In court on Wednesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan
Gohubalan said that Bello’s comments were “xenophobic, derogatory
and inflammatory” in nature, further aggravated by the fact that
his comments were published to “an enormous audience”, and that
Bello displayed a total lack of remorse for his actions.
Investigations revealed that he had regularly commented on
reports and articles relating to Singapore, often in a “vile,
derogatory and offensive” nature, and on sensitive issues such as
race and nationality.
Bello’s comments came under the spotlight when they were posted
on The Kaki News Network, a Facebook page with a significant public
following of 30,000 Facebook users. The comments went viral, and
were also the subject of several police reports made against
Bello.
Alarmed by the hostility generated by his comments, Bello
deleted them, and lodged a report with police, stating that he was
“shocked and furious that these comments had been attributed to
him”.
He told police on three occasions that he did not make the
offending comments on Facebook, and that his account had been
accessed without his permission. Bello only admitted to his lies in
his fourth statement to police, when “he found he could not keep up
the lie”, Bello’s lawyer, Mark Goh, said.
Mr Goh also told the court that as the “delicate golden threads”
of race and religion that bind Singaporean society had not been
touched on by his client’s comments, Bello should be granted a
lower sentence of six weeks, as opposed to the prosecution’s
submission of 20 weeks’ imprisonment.
In response, DPP Kumaresan told the court that comments of this
nature are “detrimental to society” and “cannot be trivialized or
underestimated”, especially in a cosmopolitan society like
Singapore.
Bello will be sentenced on Sep 16.
For promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between
different races or classes of the population of Singapore, Bello
could have received a fine of up to S$5,000 or a jail term of up to
three years, or both.
For giving false information to police, Bello could have faced a
jail term of up to one year, a fine of up to S$5,000, or
both.
- CNA/vc
