NCMF Issues Commission En Banc Resolution No. 17 declaring Hajj 2023 operation “successful”, which in effect absolves those involved in running the pilgrimage free from guilt and blame.

 Social media platforms, among them Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, blogs, etc., in all the power, usefulness, and reach they have can be both a force for good and bad.

Social media’s impact in the digital era cannot be brushed off, it’s all over people’s life; and it can either be a boon or a bane for society, business, organizations, and/or individuals. Even the high and the mighty are not spared from social media’s venom.

Anyone following on social media the goings on concerning the over 7,000 Filipino pilgrims during and after Hajj 2023 in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, would have read and known a litany of toxic posts condemning the NCMF, its leadership headed by Secretary/CEO Guiling “Gene” A. Mamondiong, and particularly those who were directly involved in the Philippine Hajj Mission operation in the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Some have even called for the privatization of the Hajj operation, while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has its own Bangsamoro Pilgrimage Authority (BARMM-BPA) and is angling to takeover or at least co-operate the Muslim Filipinos’ pilgrimage.

Grievances aired on social media by “regular paying pilgrims” and some of their relatives about accommodation, food, and transportation have reached a crescendo level, deafening words of condemnation that would have given anyone a nightmare. No questions about it, it was plain to see the Filipino pilgrims have basis for their going ballistics.

Source: scitechanddigital