Singapore hospital fires Pinoy nurse over FB rants

MANILA -- A Filipino nurse who allegedly posted "inflammatory" statements on Facebook against Singaporeans was fired from work on Friday.

In a post on Facebook, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) management said it dismissed Ello Ed Mundsel Bello for "offensive online comments" he made while in the hospital's employment.

TTSH officials said that during the course of their investigation, they discovered that Bello made three social media posts earlier, all of which touched on the topics of race and religion: were posted on Google Plus, and one on Facebook.

"These comments were highly irresponsible and offensive to Singapore and religion. They have distressed members of the public and our hospital staff. His conduct goes against our staff values of respect, professionalism and social responsibility. As a public healthcare institution, we take a very serious view and have zero tolerance on conduct that is offensive and detrimental to multi-cultural harmony in Singapore," the hospital administrators said in the statement.

Belo's dismissal from the hospital is independent of an ongoing police investigation on the alleged recent posts made in January 2015.

In a Facebook post that went viral, Bello allegedly called Singaporeans "loosers" (sic) in their own country.

"Now the Singaporeans are loosers in their own country, we take their jobs, their women, their future, and soon evict all SG loosers (sic) out of their own country hahaha. The best part, I will be praying that disastors (sic) strike Singapore and more Singaporeans die than I will celebrate," a screengrab of the controversial Facebook post read.

The Filipino claimed that his Facebook account was hacked.

The Philippine embassy in Singapore reminded Filipinos to be responsible when posting on social media.

"Be responsible when posting anything online that might be deemed as offensive or hurtful to others. Use your good judgement at all times," the embassy said on Facebook.