Nas Daily Claims Allegations By Filipino Cacao Project Founder Are False
Famous for his 1-minute videos shedding light on lesser-known facts around the world, vlogger Nas Daily has garnered countless fans internationally. Among them are the Filipino community, who enjoyed his content — up till recently.
After accusations of his alleged disrespect towards their culture surfaced, many began to doubt the vlogger’s credibility.
Word spread like wildfire, and soon, Nas Daily creator Nuseir Yassin himself decided to step forward to address the matter.
Fake tattoo academy with Whang Od
For those who may be hearing about this saga only now, here’s how things started.
Facebook user Gracia Palicas, the grandniece and apprentice of traditional tattoo artist Whang Od first called out Nas Daily for launching a “Whang Od Academy” allegedly without her grandaunt’s agreement.
Calling his programme a scam, she emphasised that her grandaunt had not signed any contract to run the academy.
In a separate post that’s now unavailable on her page, she apparently added that her grandaunt did not understand what the translators were saying, implying a likely miscommunication.
While she thanked Nas Daily for wanting to share more about their culture, she expressed her concern that some may be doing so the wrong way while standing to gain from it.
The course has since been taken down from the Nas Academy website, reports Rappler.
Alleged mockery of Filipino community by Nas Daily
Things seemed to take a turn for the worse when The Cacao Project founder Louise De Guzman Mabulo shared her own experience with Nas Daily in a lengthy and incriminating post.
Spurred on by Gracia’s sharing, Louise took to Facebook to recount her meeting with Nuseir and his team, who wanted to document her social venture.
Their meeting apparently wasn’t a pleasant one, as Louis accused Nuseir of imitating and mocking the local accent and language, even calling the people of her hometown “poor” multiple times.
When she asked about the farmers she was working with, Nuseir allegedly disregarded them as they were not “clickable viewable content”.
As Louise’s venture was still in its nascent stages then, she claimed to have shared this detail with Nas Daily prior to the recording.
But upon realising that there was really not much to work with, Nuseir reportedly didn’t hide his disappointment, which Louise’s father vouched for in his own Facebook post.
With the Nas Daily team sent packing, both father and daughter concluded that the vlogger only wanted to exploit the Filipino community for content that would garner “the most views, likes, and shares.”
Nas Daily addresses viral allegations against him
Evidently unable to escape the rumours, Nuseir took to the Nas Daily Tagalog page to address them in separate posts.
With regard to Whang Od, he shared a video clip showing the elderly tattoo artist signing a contract in the presence of her other niece, Estella Palangdao.
He also explained that the removal of the Whang Od Academy was mainly out of respect for the family while they tried to resolve any issues.
While this debunked claims regarding the absence of a contract, some netizens pointed out that Nas Daily had failed to go through the proper channels.
And since the public doesn’t know the content of the contract, nor could anyone be sure if Whang Od had fully understood it, many still bring Nas Daily’s credibility into question.
With the dubiety still looming over him, Nuseir followed up with a second post which he directed to The Cacao Project founder Louise.
He detailed his team’s determination to share her story, flying from Singapore to the Philippines to report on the ground, only to find out that the social venture wasn’t what she had presented it as at all, but a profitable family business.
He then urged her to be truthful about her work and to “not share online falsehoods” or “Fake News”, which he’d never put on Nas Daily.
In both his posts, however, netizens noted that he had failed to address allegations of him exploiting and profiting off Filipino culture and social media activity.
Critics of Filipino farm venture surface
Despite loud supporters of Louise, critics have emerged too, backing up Nuseir’s claims.
Facebook user Keb Cuevas’ post about her for instance has gone viral, recounting their exchange from way back in their school days.
Expressing his displeasure towards the Whang Od saga, Keb, however, had his own take on Louise’s venture.
Revealing that it may not be a social enterprise, after all, he accused Louise of being “equally problematic and exploitative”.
That aside, other accusations have since surfaced against Keb himself, propelling the entire situation into further confusion.
From our perspective as passive viewers, it certainly looks like all the parties are in the heat of an online blame game.
Blame in Nas Daily Filipino controversy still unclear
Since multiple accusations are coming in from various sources, pinning all the blame on any party right now seems impossible.
Until there’s conclusive evidence, let’s withhold from pointing fingers.
We hope that Nas Daily will be able to resolve the problems with the respective people themselves and clear the air.
Till the issue is properly put to rest, we hope no other incriminating stories against different individuals will surface and complicate matters.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook and Nas Daily on Facebook.
