A security guard was receiving criticism on social media after he was recorded trying to shoo away a working student who was selling flowers in front of the mall he was manning.
On January 15, 2024, the video, which was uploaded on social media, quickly went viral. SM Megamall released a statement outside of working hours.
The first part of the video shows the security guard convincing the girl to leave the vicinity of the mall.
According to the uploader, the girl was only trying to shelter herself from the possible rainfall and not planning to sell anything to the mallgoers.
The second video showed the aftermath of the failed negotiation, showing the guard forcefully destroying the flowers being sold by the girl.
According to SM Megamall, they already dismissed the security guard and were already banned from working in other branches of their mall as well.
However, some netizens believed that the punishment received by the security guard was severe.
“SM, we may also consider that the security guard might not acted the way he does if the company didn’t place so much pressure on him. We need to look into the root cause, as it’s possible that adjusting your approach toward your own people could make a difference,” netizen Lacruiser said.
“Too much to ban the guard from all SM malls. Was he involved in a similar incident before, or is this his first time? Suspending him for a month seems fair enough, He has a family to support too. I hope this situation doesn’t turn him into a villain,” netizen Jesseca commented.
“You say that, but usually the guards are just following the orders of the higher ups to remove them from the premises because they’ll ruin the image of your ” Supermalls ” . You’re just using the Guard as a scapegoat,” netizen Ralph remarked.
“Kinausap nman nya nung una ng maayos un bata kaso ung bata ayaw din sumunod, kaya na triger si kuya na sirain paninda nung bata,” netizen Rosalyn stated.