A few days ago, the video of a rude woman at a gas station went viral. We opted to blur the woman’s face as to respect her identity. Last night, her daughter decided to use the social media as well to explain her mom’s side.
Click here to see video
Ada H. posted the following on her Facebook page,
Completely devastating turnout of events. What started as a conflict between 2 (4 if we include gas boy and taxi driver) individuals, which should’ve been settled privately, blew up to become such a fiasco.
We’ve seen a video that captures a fraction of an incident, and heard the version of a seemingly vigilant citizen airing the alleged wrongdoing of another.
But it is only one side of the story.
The woman in the video is my mom, as some of you already guessed. However, what the video and post failed to show was that she was waiting at a separate lane from Mr. Ramos’ taxi, waiting for her turn. When the attendant walked over to their area, he was confused as to whom to attend to first. As my mom’s window was down, the attendant asked who came first, and she responded, “Ay, ewan ko smile emoticon” (sorry, I had to add a smiley as she says she said it in a polite gesture). According to her, since the attendant was nearest to her, he assisted her first then quickly hopped over to the taxi on the other (diagonal) side. Moments later, Mr. Ramos knocks on her window, signaling to talk to her. She waived him off initially as she mistook him for one of the vendors standing by. He knocked again to call her attention. She opens and says, “Why?” and he immediately calls her inhumane and rude. In her confusion, she asks him what his problem was, and I suppose here’s the part he tries to explain that she rudely overtook them (sorry, this part I’m not super clear on tbh). He continues to call her rude and starts fiddling with his phone to take a video which agitated my mom further as we witnessed from the video. In no way did she insist that she be prioritized because she was in a private vehicle. She never argued that she was rich and deserved special treatment. The decision on who to assist first was the attendant’s to make.
Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to go into further lengths to recount it, it may only result in a “he said, she said” scenario, and resolve nothing.
What I can argue is how dangerous it is to take a contained incident into the public sphere without full coverage of the truth. Mr. Ramos’ attempt at “public service” appears to serve more bad than good due to unsupported claims drawing insulting attention from the public. Even if it wasn’t his intention, he orchestrated bullying instigating a crippling ripple effect. The video was only ONE segment that sadly depicts my mom as this very agro and angry person. Without the rest of the parts, can easily be blown out of context.
If it’s any merit to those who have made foul comments about her, I’d like to share that she is most conscientious and humble person I know who always makes it a point to put others first before herself as a language of her love.
But she isn’t a saint, and–just like all of us–makes mistakes. She tells me her only regret is choosing the word “gay” to insinuate a man’s disrespect towards a woman. In a frantic and utterly confused moment, she failed to consider the friends and family we have who are part of the LGBT community who may have been offended by the remark. And for that she is deeply sorry.
We’re praying that as quickly as this went viral, it will die soon enough. There are far too many issues in this lifetime that begs our attention. And there is even countless more good to celebrate than to linger on negative energy”
So now you’ve heard the other side. We do have to agree with Ms. Ada, that everyone makes mistakes. We’ve all had that one moment we wish we coul take back or do differently. …Imagine if that were caught on cam. So what do you think of her statement?
