Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia shamed several doctors on her Facebook live over their criticism of her memorandum for using tuob or steam inhalation as a possible treatment for COVID-19 symptoms. One of the doctors said in a now-deleted Facebook post that steam inhalation would cause more risks of spreading the virus due to its aerosol which, in fact, has also already been proven as a false claim to kill the virus.
In the live, the governor seemed to specifically target young doctors who criticized her. One of her main arguments was about the inexperience of her critics which she questioned whether they were really doctors. Moreover, she exposed their personal details and shamed those with only “two years” of experience, saying that they probably have more experience on Facebook.
“Two years of experience, MD. How about Facebook experience? Maybe you’d have more, no? ” she said [translated] in the video, adding, “Just because you’re an MD, you criticize more now.”
“You probably have more experience on Facebook because you type your commentaries like you’re somebody important. Before you became doctors, you already got used to that,” she also said [translated].
After the two-hour-long video of Garcia letting out steam over her frustrations on the issue, she ironically set herself up for more criticism on the internet. Netizens came after her, trending #NoToDoctorShaming on Twitter in defense of the doctors Garcia called out and the medical profession in general.
People also pointed out that there were more experienced doctors that criticized the memorandum, not just the young doctors. By focusing solely on the younger doctors and their use of the Internet, Garcia also turned it into a boomer vs the younger, techier generation issue.
This isn’t the first time that the Cebu Governor came under fire for controversial statements. In the same Facebook live series on updates about the coronavirus, Garcia shot back at netizens criticizing the province’s move to general community quarantine (GCQ) on May 18. Despite the eight deaths out of the 60 positive COVID-19 cases in the province of Cebu at that time, Garcia pointed out that “we cannot treat this as a deadly virus because it’s not” and proceeded to announce that the province will be shifting to GCQ. She whipped out statements in her video revealing their personal details like addresses and marital status as a response to the criticisms that contained “name-calling or cursing.”
The Commission on Human Rights warned Garcia that she shouldn’t be using her online platform to “drive a wedge or to be a means of great harm—such as the propagation of dangerous lies, victimization of the weak, the bullying of the vulnerable and the humiliation of the disadvantaged.” She responded by saying that this was fine with her and that she would be open to criticism “so long as they don’t also resort to calling us ‘bogo,’ ‘kurakot’ and ‘nagkiat,’ to mention just a few of the names these netizens wantonly post.”
At this rate, Garcia could be losing the support of her citizens the longer she takes criticism this way.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
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