The weekend was marked by a frenzy of hearsay information exchanged by a bevy of Opposition “influencers” who, many observed, aimed to undermine Manila’s hosting of the Southeast Asian Games this year. One of the ringleaders of this lynch mob is the person behind the Twitter account @AltABSCBN who, this Saturday 23rd November, posted what then had been an unverified set of photos and, from those, issued his personal indictment of the SEA Games organisers.
Usapang #SEAGames2019 part 6:
PUTANGINA
(Sabi ng sender go daw malaglag na ang malalaglag) pic.twitter.com/VKeA90lIc5
— AltABSCBN (@AltABSCBN) November 23, 2019
(Click here for screenshot)
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Since then, a who’s who of social media “influencers” allied with the Opposition camp have chimed in, often simply sharing and retweeting factoids from various sources and fuelling outrage — all on the back of unverified reports.
Nakakahiya ! https://t.co/6gon8bPpj2
— Noemi L. Dado (@momblogger) November 24, 2019
(Click here to see screenshot)
Indeed, these people, by themselves, encapsulate the whole trouble with social media “activism”. The earlier set of photos shown tweeted by the @AltABSCBN Twitter account turned out to be members of the Cambodian team who had experienced problems with their accommodation at the Century Park Manila.
In their Official Statement posted on their Facebook page, management of Century Park Manila laid down the facts.
The signed agreement with the organizers include accommodations with standard check-in time of 2:00 PM.
We were told that team members from Cambodia were coming in early on November 23, 2019 the night before. As much as we wanted to accommodate the request, it was not possible due to full occupancy. Standard check out is until 12:00NN. However, as early as 8:25am, some members were given an early check-in due to availability of rooms.
As goodwill, we offered our function rooms to serve as their temporary holding area after their breakfast. We asked them if they needed more chairs but they declined, preferring the floors so they could lie down to rest. Lunch was also served to them accordingly.
The person behind @AltABSCBN still insists, however, on pointing fingers and, evidently, fails to see any opportunity to move on from an unfortunate situation that was rectified to the best of what the circumstances at the time offered using resources available then.
It is not acceptable. The organizers are at fault here. The PHISGOC should be blamed here. Dapat alam nila anong oras darating ang mga atleta. Myghad. Ang dali gawin. https://t.co/VK7HyjiLyi
— AltABSCBN (@AltABSCBN) November 25, 2019
Are these people genuinely doing what they are doing for the good of Filipino society as a whole? It seems their true motives remain, not surprisingly, partisan in nature. Scorpions, after all, can’t help but sting. These “influencers” are worse than scorpions, however, because they have brains they are evidently not using.
Webmaster of Get Real Philippines