Poseur nCoV victim draws flak, makes public apology
Filipino vlogger pulled a prank that backfired
Manila: A vlogger who tried to depict himself as an nCoV victim to draw attention to himself through a prank instead attracted criticism as police poise charges against him for alarm and scandal.
Marlon de Vera had pretended to be an nCoV infected person when he pulled off his prank before the Sunday crowd at the Yashano Mall in Legazpi City in Southern Luzon.
A video shared by Facebook user John Lawrence Morada showed him complete with a face mask, falling face down on the pavement just outside the mall entrance pretending he was an nCoV victim. The people around him panicked. The crowd hurriedly tried to get as far away from the ‘nCoV’ victim as possible.
However, moments later, to the apparent surprise of the people around, de Vera stood up appearing to be healthy and doing some stretching as if having woke up from a good sleep.
The people milling around got apparently irritated by what they saw. “He was just play acting,” said a person among crowd.
Alarm, scandal
De Vera’s antics did not get past the management of the commercial establishment who reported the incident to authorities. For what the vlogger did, Yashano Mall had him arrested. A case was filed against him before the local police for “alarm and scandal”.
Now, a day after de Vera’s stunt went viral, the vlogger is besieged with criticisms and apparent threats. In a vlog, he sought forgiveness for creating unnecessary alarm.
“I made a mistake and I admit it,” he said. “Now I am very worried,” he said.
“I have learned my lesson. I was not expecting this kind reaction from my prank.”
Some people said that what de Vera did was insensitive given the number of people being infected and suspected of being afflicted with the novel corona virus (nCoV) every day around the world and in the Philippines.
According to the Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH), as of February 3, the country had registered one fatality from nCoV with two confirmed cases and 80 patients under observation for having the virus.