By: Jim Lloyd Dongiapon
Authorities detained two content creators after they pulled a prank by drinking gasoline straight from a soft drink bottle near a gas station in the municipality of Mawab, Davao de Oro.
The incident happened on Wednesday, January 18, when content creator Jonel C. Cordero, 29, a resident of Barangay Andili, and his friend, Arnold O. Rabi, 32, a resident of Barangay Nueva Visayas, recorded the prank for their Facebook page “Cordero Brothers,” which is known for such kinds of videos.
The Mawab Municipal Police Station reported that at around 2:00 PM that day, Cordero went to the Green Planet Gasoline Station at Barangay Nueva Visayas to buy Php10 worth of gasoline and stored it in a soft drink bottle.
After purchasing the gasoline, he acted as though he was drinking it while his friend was filming. He pretended to be dizzy and vomited near the gas station, which alarmed the crew on duty at the time.
The gas station staff immediately requested assistance from the Mawab Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), and when the emergency responders arrived, the vlogger continued to act as though he were fainting.
When one of the emergency responders asked if he was fine, he then replied that it was all a prank
It was then revealed that the bottle he drank from just contained an energy drink.
The emergency responders were not pleased with what occurred, and the two were eventually arrested.
The video also went viral on Facebook, eliciting mixed reactions from netizens.
They were detained for 14 hours at the Mawab Municipal Police Station, and were released Thursday morning, January 19.
They will possibly be facing charges for violating Article 155 of the Revised Penal Code, also known as “Alarms and Scandals.”
Meanwhile, the Mawab MDRRMO warned the public not to create pranks involving emergencies.
“Wala man mo gibawalan nga maglingaw-lingaw anang inyong PRANKS apan hangyo lang mi, ayaw intawon idamay kining emergency concerns kay maka-create ug panic sa katawhan o publiko (Though you are not forbidden from having fun through pranks, we are just requesting that you do not use emergency concerns for those since they create among the general public),” Mawab MDRRMO stated in its Facebook post.
The office is hoping that this kind of incident will not happen again, and they asked for the public’s cooperation to keep their municipality peaceful and away from any kind of harm.
Yesterday, the Cordero Brothers personally visited the Mawab MDRRMO headquarters to express their regret to the emergency responders they had offended.
They also clarified that the prank occurred coincidentally near MDRRMO’s headquarters and that they had no intention of offending the rescuers.
Additionally, they have vowed not to repeat such mistakes in their upcoming videos.