The Jacque Bermejo Scandal

Posted in crazy, facebook, filipino, internet, post, scandal, shame, trolls, writing

From hero to zero.

If my earlier Ondoy-related post talked about a hero who saved more than 30 lives in a few hours, this one's about an overseas Filipino worker in Dubai who rose to notoriety when she allegedly made the most insensitive remark on Facebook regarding the calamity.

In a span of approximately 24 hours Jacque Bermejo became an instant Internet celebrity slash hate-puppet all across the world wide thingamajiggy. It all started when in the middle of the crisis brought about by typhoon Ondoy, a rather unsavory comment was found on her Facebook page. It said:

"buti n lng am hir in dubai! Maybe so many sinners bak der!so yeah deserving wat hapend!".

This is a prime example of how fast word can travel over the Internet. In less than a day people have started a hate page that as of this writing now has 10,596 members. One cannot blame a nation, who had just suffered one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, for being sensitive to comments such as that, right?

Then there are also those who defend Ms. Bermejo, stating that her alleged Facebook and Multiply pages have been riddled with "trolls". They give a rather informative defense, as seen here. I just don't bite it.

Personally though, I really see no point in pursuing the matter further. If Ms. Bermejo was indeed an innocent victim of haters, I'd chalk it up to tough luck. No such thing as bad publicity anyway. She might even get her 15 seconds of fame on TV one day. But seriously, what is there to do about it? I highly doubt that anybody's gonna get a good spanking from mother, much less arrested, over this. If you're worried about clearing your name, think about the Gabby Concepcions and the Maricar Reyes's. Like I said, no such thing as bad publicity.

Now if she really was the culprit, then I hope she's ready to suffer the nation's electronic wrath.