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| The disturbing video as shared online and on Coconuts Hong Kong page |
A Filipina domestic helper has sought police help after she was wrongly identified as the woman shown on a viral video spitting into a baby’s bottle while preparing milk formula.
According
to various news reports in Hong Kong on Friday, Aug 21, the woman was an
Indonesian domestic helper who had since been fired by her employer.
Inexplicably,
Filipina domestic worker Joy Garano was identified in various group chats of
Indonesian FDHs as the one who was in the video.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye! |
At least two Indonesian
workers also shared a photo of Garano, along with a screen-grab of her biodata filed with Bandung employment agency.
To
make matters worse, a Filipina domestic worker using the Facebook name Kurdpaya
Lakwatsera picked up this false information along with Garano’s
personal details, and re-posted it all on her own wall, saying it was because
she wanted to be fair to her Indonesian counterparts.
The
news traveled fast, and Garano reacted with her own Facebook post on the same
day, saying: “Para malinawan lahat, hindi
po ako ang nasa video. Sa nagkalat ng fake news, maghintay lang po kayo.” (So
everyone will know, I am not the one in the video. To the one spreading the
fake news, just you wait).
Later,
in a chat with administrators of an online group who
relayed their concern, Garano said she had just gone to the police to file a
report, and asked for help in rebutting the allegation against her.
“Hindi po ako yan, ate, 4 years old alaga ko.
Salamat po sa concern, nagpunta na po akong police kanina…paki-spread po iyan
na hindi po ako, salamat po,” she said.
(I
am not the one, sister, my ward is four years old. Thanks for the concern, I
have been to this police earlier today. Please spread the word that I am not
that one, thank you).
She
no longer responded to queries on messenger afterwards.
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| Bandung agency also denied the woman in the video was their applicant whose biodata was shared online |
A
separate post by Bandung employment agency said: “FYI lang po. Hindi po totoo na ang nagkalat na bio data na galing sa
Bandung ay ang nasa video. Ang nasa bio data at ang nasa video ay hindi po
iisang tao! Nakausap na po naming ang FDH na nasa aming bio data at tinulungan
na namin para ma clear ang pangalan niya. Sana hindi na natin i-share ang bio
data niya at hindi na idiin na siya ang nasa video kasi hindi po siya iyon.
Maraming salamat!” (FYI.
It’s not true that the person in the biodata from Bandung is the same one in
the video. They’re two different persons. We have spoken with the FDH in the
biodata and helped her clear her name. We hope you would stop sharing her
biodata and not insist that she was the one in the video because that’s not
her. Thank you).
It
was not made clear, however, how Garano’s private information sheet supposedly
filed away in the agency’s office was leaked.
In
the video reposted by online news site Coconuts Hong Kong on Friday, a woman is seen
scooping milk powder into a baby bottle, then spitting a gob of saliva into it
before taking it away.
The
report said: “According to a caption that accompanied the video, the woman is
an Indonesian domestic worker who has since been let go by her employer.”
The
same version appears to have been reported in Chinese newspapers and TV
reports, as well as in various online chat groups where the members are mostly
locals, like “Saikung Wall” and “Must know news for employers of domestic
workers.”
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| Add caption |
The
Coconuts report quoted an interview by local media organization HK01 with the
chairman of the Hong Kong Employment Agencies Association chairman Cheung
Kit-man who said that the video was not all it seemed.
“There
are issues on both (the employer and helper’s) sides, this is not a one-sided
situation,” Cheung reportedly said.
While
many netizens argued that the Indonesian maid may have a valid grudge against
her employer, taking it out on an innocent baby was wrong.
It was equally wrong to falsely accuse someone of being behind the
disgraceful conduct.
One
Indonesian who goes by the name Joy Skylight Quiee posted in her own language (roughly
translated into English): “In the viral news that’s going around, an Indonesian
was again blamed. Why are we being targeted? Employers should open their eyes.
This is a Filipino with her complete biodata…not from Indonesia. Our faces may
look similar, but that should not give anyone reason to always accuse
Indonesian people. She is from the Philippines.”
Not a few netizens were more outraged that a fellow Filipina had quickly picked up the
defamatory information, and even embellished on it.
Said
Kurdpaya in her post: “Just want to make it clear para din unfair sa mga
Indonisian (sic). Eto yung babaing nagdura sa milk bottle habang nagtitimpla.
Yan name (indicating the attached biodata of Garano) pero Filipina pala, hindi
Indonesia.”
After
saying she managed to get the woman’s name after doing some stalking, she
added: “Na virus na ata isip ni ate,” she said.
Kurdpaya,
whose face is clearly shown in her profile photo, then went on to advise her
fellow FDHs to love their wards and not spit into their milk, then added: “kagigil.” (So annoying!)
The
post has since been deleted, but not after several OFWs had passed it around.
