A Filipina tourist’s emotional account of being humiliated by a group of older Filipinos at one of Switzerland’s most famous filming locations has gone viral, reigniting conversations about the way Filipinos treat their own countrymen abroad.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Reamae Bagotsay described what she called one of the most painful experiences of her life, which she said unfolded on August 29, 2026, at the Iseltwald Pier on the shores of Lake Brienz. The wooden pier rose to international fame as a filming location for the hit South Korean Netflix series Crash Landing on You, drawing crowds of Asian tourists who line up—and pay a CHF 5 entry fee—to pose at the spot where the lead character famously played the piano.
Bagotsay, who was traveling with three friends, said the four of them had long dreamed of standing at the pier. “For four young women working hard away from home, standing at that iconic pier was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” she wrote, describing the visit as a hard-earned reward after years of working abroad.
Instead, she said, the moment turned into a source of trauma—and the people responsible were fellow Filipinos.
According to her account, she and her friends had waited patiently in line, even cheering on and offering to take photos for the couples and tourists ahead of them. But when it was finally their turn, a group of older Filipinos allegedly began rushing and berating them. “TAMA NA YAN! One second lang dapat every picture!” she recalled them shouting, claiming the group had falsely insisted they had already been waiting “isang oras” (one hour) when, by her account, they had only just arrived.
Bagotsay wrote that her friends tried to explain calmly that they, too, had paid and waited their turn, but the group only grew angrier. By the time it was her turn to have her photo taken, she said, her three companions were “literally shaking in fear and embarrassment,” their excitement replaced by tears.
The situation escalated, she said, when she nearly fell while trembling from anxiety—and instead of concern, heard laughter and cruel remarks. “AYYY, SAYANG HINDI NALAGLAG!” she recalled one voice saying, while another allegedly taunted, “SAANG BAYAN BA KAYO ISINILANG?”
That, she wrote, was her breaking point. “Putngina niyo! Ang tatanda niyo pa naman! Paano kami magbibigay ng respeto kung hindi kayo karespe-respeto?!” she recalled snapping at the group, her voice shaking with anger.
Bagotsay was candid about her use of profanity, acknowledging it was wrong even as she stood by her decision to confront the group. “I am sorry for using those words, but I will NEVER be sorry na pinatulan ko kayo,” she wrote. She said the group briefly fell silent before seizing on her cursing as proof that she was the one in the wrong.
Eventually, she said, one woman from the group apologized on the others’ behalf—a gesture that brought her to tears. “I sobbed not just because of anger, but because my heart was breaking for me and my friends whose dream moment was ruined—and most of all, umiyak ako para sa LAHI natin,” she wrote, expressing grief for how Filipinos had treated their own.
She also recounted that tourists of other nationalities, who could not understand the Tagalog being spoken, nonetheless offered her comfort from a distance—a kindness that she said moved her even more deeply than the cruelty had wounded her.
Bagotsay closed her post with an appeal for basic decency. “KINDNESS costs nothing,” she wrote, adding that if the group had simply asked politely to go ahead, she and her friends would gladly have offered to let them pass and even taken their photos.
“To everyone reading this, please remember that age does not automatically deserve respect if you cannot show basic empathy,” she wrote. “Bitbit natin ang pangalan ng bansa natin saan man tayo magpunta. RESPECT begets respect.”
As of this writing, the account rests solely on Bagotsay’s own post; the individuals she described have not publicly responded, and the incident has not been independently verified.
