'No clickbaiting here': Nas Daily speaks up over 'Pinoy baiting,' working with Indigenous Peoples
MANILA, Philippines — For the first time since the issue broke out last week, Nuseir Yassin or more popularly known as Nas Daily appeared on a video posted today, August 9, on his Facebook page to air his side.
The content creator/vlogger informed the public that his Nas Academy is currently on hold while he is working with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Nas Academy offers courses/masterclasses to be conducted by industry experts or practitioners. Among its supposed offerings was a course that featured Kalinga tattoo artist Apo Whang-od, which sparked an issue since last week after her grandniece and apprentice Grace Palicas took to social media to call out the Whang-od Academy a "scam." Palicas' posts have since been deleted.
Related: Nas Daily under fire for including Apo Whang Od in Nas Academy
In Nas' five-minute, 59-second video that he captioned with "It's my turn to speak," he recalled how his relationship with the Philippines and Filipinos started in January 2017.
From making videos while in Thailand, he was flooded with requests to make videos of the Philippines. He admitted that he did not know about the country but then decided to visit it.
"And the minute I landed, I fell in love! My energy and the Filipino energy were the same. We both love to scream and make videos," he recalled.
Clips and flashes of photos of him smiling and being greeted with warm welcome by a cabin crew, a fastfood chain staff and security guards were shown.
He was so happy that he held his first meet-up in the country. He also started to make more videos such as scenic destinations and stories of inspiring people. He underscored that apart from the positives, he also did videos that showed the grim realities of living in the country.
These include stories of underprivileged people from Tondo and the popular topic of how cheap the cost of living and commodities are in the Philippines.
"We showed the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly and together we told the story of the Philippines. And I didn't only do it once, I came back to visit again," he said.
A year later, he came back to start a company and launched an app. He also showed clips of his outreach activities as well as shared how Nas Daily had been helping whenever natural disasters such as typhoons and floods occured.
He recalled to be among those who visited Marawi after the Mindanao city was besieged with a five-month long war in 2017. He said he went there to show "inspiring stories from the Philippines in Marawi City!"
"There is no clickbaiting here. There is no 'put Philippines' in the title crap. This is us on the ground doing the work to show you the bright side of the Philippines," he said.
This is among the reasons that he was cited for his work on promoting Philippine tourism through his famous one-minute videos. He showed a photo of him being recognized by the Department of Tourism, led by Secretary Bernadette Puyat-Romulo. He received the plaque of recognition in 2019 during the Philippine Night, a sideline event at the 2019 International Mediterranean Tourism Market held in Israel, his birthplace.
Working with the NCIP
According to Nas, the "same people" said Nas Daily used Apo Whang-od. Nas again denied it.
"In everything we do, we get permission. We worked with the family directly and got their consent. We made sure to support them during these difficult times. We did all of these as an act of support, not an act of exploitation," he said.
Nas Academy had earlier uploaded a video of the Kalinga centenarian tattoo artist affixing her thumbprint. His camp said that one of her other nieces, Estella Palangdao, served as translator and witness to the signing of the contract.
Related: 'Not a scam': Nas Daily clarifies Whang-Od inclusion in Nas Academy
The NCIP said that it is reviewing the said contract. The NCIP-Cordillera Administrative Region posted on its Facebook page about the 2020 announcement of Kalinga Elders on the use of their tattoos. The statement said that those tattoos are the collective property of the Kalinga Indigenous Cultural Communities and, in effect, requires prior consent from the community before use or appropriation.
"I am angry and you are angry and we hear each other. That's why we paused Nas Academy for now to work with NCIP to make sure everything is legal and everything is okay because we care!" Nas said.
Nas recalled how his mother taught him about character. He was taught not to make fake news about character because that is a "red line."
"We are working with lawyers to set the records straight and let the truth come out. And don't get me wrong. We're not perfect! We make mistakes but our intentions are pure!" he said.
Though the events had spiraled into many other issues, he said that nothing changes from their side. Nas Daily will continue to support the Philippines, including plans to open an office in the country over the next two years. He also said that he will continue to make inspiring videos.
"My only request is that when you make an opinion, you should not make it based on fake news. You should seek the truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you so much for your support. That's more than a minute. See you tomorrow," Nas ended.
