This is not funny.
Several Filipinos online are calling out the Cebu City police for doing a prank in which several cops pretend to arrest citizens, only to give them gifts before they are supposed to be detained.
The prank— or police operation— is called “arestoguinaldo.” That’s a portmanteau of the words “arrest” and “aguinaldo,” meaning gift-giving. The project started earlier this week, and it was supposedly the cops’ way of “giving back” to frontline workers in the community.
But instead of spreading good vibes, at least two workers appeared to have been stressed out by the experience, as shown in a video posted online by SunStar Cebu. The two, employees of a fast-food restaurant, appeared perturbed while they were being read a fake warrant of arrest for supposedly committing attempted homicide. Their worries vanished only after a group of cops sang a Christmas carol just as they were about to be taken into custody.
Read: Prank Gone Wrong: Vlogger catches flak for pretending to faint at mall amid Wuhan virus fears
Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite called out the Cebu City cops, saying that the prank was an “ill-conceived gimmick [that] brings chills and causes unwarranted stress and shame to its victims, people who might already be under a lot of stress due to the pandemic and the bad economy.”
On Twitter, @lancecatacutan_ said that arestoguinaldo is “a f*cking lame prank.”
Seriously the arrestoguinaldo is a fucking lame prank that shit aint funny
— lanceyboi (@lancecatacutan_) December 16, 2020
User @andi_mikey didn’t like it as well, tweeting that the “amount of distaste their idea of a prank exudes is beyond me.”
The amount of distaste their idea of a prank exudes is BEYOND me 🙂 https://t.co/irLsVz44Uk
— andrea mika (@andi_mikey) December 16, 2020
“I did not even feel like laughing one bit. I didn’t let out even a chuckle. Not a single bit of this was laugh-inducing to me,” wrote @frayenicolea.
not funny. didn’t laugh. not even a single giggle. not a single haha. not even a hehe. not a sound. not at all funny. i did not even feel like laughing one bit. i didn’t let out even a chuckle. not a single bit of this was laugh-inducing to me.
— Yne⁴ (@frayenicolea) December 16, 2020
Should the police continue doing this “prank?” Tell us by leaving a comment below or tweeting to @CoconutsManila.
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