Nas Daily remains steadfast in opening Philippines office, clarifies allegations via FB video

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Shortly after Nas Daily founder, Nuseir Yassin, issued statements about allegations of him disrespecting Filipino culture, in true blue Nas Daily style, Yassin (pictured) released a Facebook video to clarify the issue. He was recently accused by Louise Mabulo, founder of The Cacao Project, for imitating and mocking the local accent and that he only wanted “clickable viewable content”. According to Mabulo, Yassin also allegedly said he would be able to rack up millions of views just by putting “Philippines” in the headline.

“There is no click baiting here, putting ‘Philippines’ in the title is crap,” Yassin said, explaining that he has been making videos on Filipino nature, inspiring people and the underprivileged individuals in Tondo since 2017. “We showed the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, and together we told the story of the Philippines,” he said. The video also showed snippets of Yassin and his team working with locals on the ground to show viewers what the country is all about.

Addressing Mabulo’s claims, Yassin said: “Every time we make a video, there is a chance it is fake.” Hence, the team has to carry out research, fact check with individuals on the ground, as well as on the Internet. On paper, Mabulo’s The Cacao Project was positioned as a non-profit organisation. However, Yassin said it is a for-profit entity that “exploits farmers” and the team cannot show viewers stories it is not confident of.

“Every person who was on the trip agrees that this story may not be real. We refused to make that episode even if it would go viral. That decision pissed off a lot of people,” Yassin explained in the video.

https://www.facebook.com/122111582514754/videos/607425980257989

Yassin also addressed claims of him capitalising on Filipino culture by claiming to have started up an academy with well-known tattoo artist Whang-Od. Whang-Od’s granddaughter, Grace Palicas, said in a public Facebook group titled "Tattooed by Apo Whang-Od" last week that her grandmother did not sign any contract with Yassin and that some individuals “are taking advantage of the Butbut tribe’s culture”.

Yassin clarified previously in a statement that Whang-Od consented to the academy and in the latest Facebook video, he said: “In everything we do, we get permission. We worked with the family and got their consent.” According to him, the team also made sure to support them during these difficult times.

“We did all of this as an act of support not exploitation. We paused Nas Academy to work with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to make sure everything is legal and okay because we care,” he explained. Yassin and his team are also working with lawyers to set the record straight.

Nonetheless, he reaffirmed his commitment to the Philippines and plans to open a local office in the next two years and create “hundreds of jobs”.

The recent allegations have resulted in Yassin losing approximately 514k Facebook followers, Filipino digital media company Rappler said. Citing statistics from CrowdTangle, Rappler reported that most of the unfollows came from 5 August at about 275k.

Meanwhile, statistics sent to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE by Meltwater upon request showed that 32% of online sentiments towards this issue were negative while 62% remained neutral between 3 to 5 August. A total of 19.6k conversations were observed online during this time period, peaking on 4 August with close to 12.5k conversations. Majority of them were from Twitter followed by news sites.

Yassin added, “When there was a natural disaster, we started a fundraiser. When there was a war, we went to the warzone to show you inspiring stories from the Philippines in Marawi City." In 2019, Yassin received a certificate of recognition from the country’s Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat for promoting the Philippines in his one-minute video.

“When you make an opinion, you should not make it based on fake news. You should see the truth and nothing but the truth,” Yassin added.

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