Filipino nurse charged with sedition in Singapore pleads guilty

SINGAPORE – A Filipino nurse who insulted Singaporeans online and called for the takeover of the city-state pleaded guilty to one charge of sedition and two counts of providing false information to the police, on Wednesday, August 26, ChannelNews Asia reported. (READ: Singapore hospital sacks Filipino nurse for offensive Facebook comments)

Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, known as “Edz Ello” on Facebook, was fired from his job at the government-run Tan Tock Seng Hospital in January after internal investigations revealed a series of social media posts which were deemed offensive. The 28-year-old Bello was arrested last April.

Charge sheets said Bello’s remarks have “the tendency to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Singapore, namely, between Singaporeans and Filipinos in Singapore”.

In his first Facebook post on January 2, he wrote: “Singaporeans are loosers (sic) in their own country, we take their jobs, their future, their women and soon we will evict all SG loosers (sic) out of their own country hahaha.”

He ended the post by saying, “Remember Pinoy (Filipinos) better and stronger than Stinkaporeans.”

In a subsequent comment on the same day, Bello said “we will kick out all the Singaporeans and SG will be the new filipino state.”

Bello was also charged with lying to the police on 3 different occasions during investigations.

He had told police officers he was not responsible for the offending posts, and that his Facebook account had been hacked.

Under the Sedition Act, among other things, it is an offense to promote hostility between different races or classes in multiracial Singapore, which is mainly ethnic Chinese.

In a statement after Bello was charged in court, the Singapore Police Force said it “takes a stern view of acts that could threaten social harmony in Singapore.”

“Any person who posts remarks online that could cause ill-will and hostility between the different races or communities in Singapore will be firmly dealt with in accordance with the law,” it said.

Singapore clamps down hard on anyone seen to be inciting communal tensions after bloody racial riots in the 1960s.

Bello will be sentenced on September 16. 

According to the Singapore Straits Times, the maximum penalty under the Sedition Act is a SG$5,000 (P100,000) fine and jail time of 3 years. For giving false information to a public servant, he could be jailed for up to one year and/or fined up to SG$5,000 (P100,000) per charge. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com