The much reviled Philippines national Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, now 28 years-old, who was caught making disparaging remarks about Singaporeans and lying to police that his account had been hacked, has pleaded guilty to 3 charges in court today.
He was found guilty of 1 charge under the Sedition Act for promoting ill will and hostility between communities, and 2 charges of giving false information to the police. 1 additional charge of sedition and another for lying to the police would be taken into consideration during the sentencing on 16th September.
In his infamous tirade against Singaporeans posted earlier this year, Edz Ello, as his moniker was known on Facebook, hurled racist insults against Singaporeans and wished death upon Singaporeans. Calling Singaporeans "loosers in their own country", he claimed that Pinoys would "take their jobs, their future, their women, and soon, we will evict all SG loosers out of their own country", adding that Singapore would become the "new Filipino state".
More shockingly, he said that he would be "praying that disastors strike Singapore and more Singaporeans will die", saying that he would "celebrate" in such an event.
He concluded his nauseating rant with the words: "REMEMBER PINOY BETTER AND STRONGER THAN STINKAPOREANS."
Bello was dismissed from his job as a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital after the hospital concluded its own investigations and discovered that Edz Ello had consistently made vile and racist postings against Singaporeans using his Facebook account.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohubalan said in court today that Bello’s comments were “xenophobic, derogatory and inflammatory” in nature, further aggravated by the fact that his comments were published to “an enormous audience”, and that Bello displayed a total lack of remorse for his actions.
DPP Kumaresan added that Edz Ello often commented on articles and posts related to Singapore in a “vile, derogatory and offensive” nature, riding roughshod over sensitive issues such as race and nationality.
Once Edz Ello's comments were exposed to Singaporean netizens, screenshots of his posts went viral and several police reports were lodged against him.
Fearful of the hostility created by his comments, Edz Ello deleted the comments and lodged a police report, lying to officers by claiming that the comments were not made by him and telling the police that he was “shocked and furious that these comments had been attributed to him”.
He told police 3 times that he did not make the offending comments on Facebook and lied that his account had been hacked. But when the police pressed on with irrefutable evidence of his crimes, Edz Ello admitted to his lies in his 4th statement with the police.
Edz Ello's lawyer, Mr Mark Goh, tried to defend Edz Ello by saying that his clients comments did not affect the “delicate golden threads” of race and religion that bind Singaporean society, and so Edz Ello should be granted a lower sentence of six weeks, as opposed to the prosecution’s submission of 20 weeks’ imprisonment.
In response, DPP Kumaresan told the court that comments of this nature are “detrimental to society” and “cannot be trivialized or underestimated”, especially in multiracial Singapore.
Bello will be sentenced on Sep 16.
For promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore, Bello could have received a fine of up to S$5,000 or a jail term of up to three years, or both.
For giving false information to police, Bello could have faced a jail term of up to one year, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.
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