SB19 members Stell and Pablo have issued statements in response to a rift between the P-pop group’s supporters, known as A’Tin, and Philippine volleyball fans who are backing up Alas Pilipinas star Sisi Rondina.
During the ‘Pistang Pinoy sa Korea’ Philippine Independence Day event in Busan, South Korea last Sunday, Alas Pilipinas spiker Sisi Rondina was asked about which of the featured performers she was most excited to see live.
As the host brought up that most of the audience were mentioning SB19, Sisi jokingly said, “Bhie, Starbucks lang [ang] alam ko,” referring to "SB.”
Some die-hard A’Tin took Sisi’s remark seriously and were offended, thus demanding her to apologize to the P-pop group on X (formerly known as Twitter).
After receiving backlash, Sisi already took to Instagram Live and conveyed her remorse to the disrespected parties.
“Personally hindi ko talaga sila [SB19] kilala. And then tinanong ako, sinong pinaka-inaantay ko. Tapos sabi nila [audience], SB19. SB? Ay ‘di ko kilala ‘yon. Starbucks lang [ang] alam ko. So ayun, daming na-offend siguro. Sorry talaga. I’m really sorry,” she said.
SB19 members Stell and Pablo addressed the bashing from their fans. Stell responded to the offensive tweet of his fan directed at Rondina, while Pablo released a statement on X.
“I personally don't tolerate this kind of behavior. Stop this,” Stell tweeted.
“Our goal as a team since we started hasn’t changed: Iangat ang kulturang Pinoy sa global stage, and we know na hindi kami nag-iisa sa goal na ‘to dahil marami pang ibang Pinoy ang nagsusumikap at nagsasakripisyo para sa layon na ‘to,” Pablo wrote.
““Respect and acknowledge na hindi lahat ng tao, aware or kilala ang grupo namin. Hindi sa lahat ng oras, everyone will hold a favorable opinion of us. That’s fine! At the end of the day, we're proud of and respect every Filipino who's made strides to uplift the country, whether sa music, sa sports, and sa iba pang larangan,” the singer-songwriter added.
The Alas Pilipinas participated in Serve, Spike, Unite! friendly exhibition match against the Powerful Daegu of South Korea in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of South Korea.