A foreign affairs official has warned overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia against sharing social media posts that could potentially “ruin the reputation” of their employers.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola stressed during a senate meeting last week that the Gulf state imposes stiff punishment to purveyors of fake news as well as those who tarnish the reputation of their citizens and country.
This came following a viral video of some Filipinos in Riyadh who were seen looking for food in garbage bins, reported Inquirer.
“I’ve been monitoring social media and there’s a lot of debates,” the report quoted Arriola as saying. “I think one of the people who posted the video was already arrested.”
The undersecretary said an independent investigation has been conducted and showed that the video was “staged”.
“The OFWs… were asked to go to the garbage bins, it was staged,” she said.
“We are not denying that there is a crisis. And there’s really a problem. The jurisdiction of Riyadh and the Philippine Embassy is very huge because it (Riyadh) is bigger than the Philippines,” she added.
“We just want to tell our Filipinos, especially in Saudi Arabia, that please be careful with your social media posts because you cannot ruin the reputation of the corporation you’re working for because they are very strict with cyber libel,” Arriola also said.
