Social media spread false COVID-19 reports, turn OFW from China into community pariah

PAGADIAN CITY—-An Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who has returned from Beijing fears for her life, not from the deadly COVID-19 but from recalcitrant neighbors who insist she is a threat to their health.

Rosalie, mother of the 23-year old OFW, said some neighbors threatened to gun down her daughter if she comes out of the house.

This is why her daughter, a domestic worker in Beijing, scarcely goes out after she arrived home last Feb. 1.

The OFW arrived in Manila from Beijing on Jan. 31. On Feb. 1, she took a flight to Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental then travelled by bus to her hometown in Tabina, Zamboanga del Sur,

On Feb. 2, acting on the report of a neighbor, municipal health office staff visited the OFW at home to check on her condition. She readily cooperated with health authorities who advised that the OFW go on a 14-day home quarantine.

Wilfred Agtina, provincial disease surveillance officer of the Department of Health, said the OFW never had any flu-like symptoms from Feb. 2 and throughout the quarantine period.

Agtina also noted that the OFW told them she had no symptoms when she was checked at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport hence, was allowed to pass.

But the clearance from health authorities has not eased the scare in the remote rural neighborhood.

Community anxiety was stoked by information circulating on social media, the main outlet of false information, of a COVID-19-infected woman in Tabina, even mentioning the OFW’s name.

Rosalie said that amid the barrage of wrong information, village officials were not able to pacify community folk and were prompted to seek help from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

NBI Pagadian District Office chief Israel Ivan Peralta said

the agency will investigate the social media posts to identify the people responsible for spreading the wrong information about the OFW.

“Once we find basis, we will file appropriate charges against those individuals involved,” Peralta said.

Rosalie said the family was also contemplating about filing charges against their neighbors who threatened to kill her daughter.

The OFW told the Inquirer her nephews and nieces, who live with her in the same house, are being shunned by their teachers and classmates at school, believing they also carry the virus.

She admitted having experienced depression during the early part of her ordeal.

Edited by TSB