Filipino Ed Mundsel Bello Ello, 29, was charged with sedition and making false statements to the police yesterday (August 26). The former radiographer with Tan Tock Seng Hospital is convicted on one charge under the Sedition Act and two charges of lying to the police. Ed Ello has since pleaded guilty to all three charges, while two additional charges of sedition and making false statements will be taken into consideration upon judgment.
Photo of Ed Ello from thestraitstimes
Earlier this year on January 2, the Filipino commented on Facebook calling Singaporeans “loosers (sic) in their own country” and that Filipinos like him will take “Singaporeans’ jobs, future, women and evict SG loosers (sic) out of their own country”. The offending comment is shown below:
Screenshot from Facebook
When the comment went viral, many Singaporeans lodged police reports against him. Ed Ello subsequently made a false police report saying that he was “shocked and furious” that these comments had been attributed to him. His employer Tan Tock Seng Hospital believed him initially and put him on administrative duties while they conduct an internal investigation. Ed Ello then finally confessed and he was fired.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor added in court that Ed Ello had also been regularly making offensive comments against Singaporeans in many Singapore-related news articles.
Ed Ello will be sentenced on September 16. The DPP has requested for a 20-week jail. Although Ed Ello’s case happened in January, his case was slower than Amos Yee’s, a 16 year old Singaporean who was jailed more than 4 weeks for making brief anti-Christian comments on an anti-Lee Kuan Yew video.