The ‘honorable’ Representative Mikey Arroyo of the 2nd District of Pampanga is angry.
It’s just been several weeks since the brouhaha over his $1.3> home in the U.S. and his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) sort of died down.
But now he’s facing a storm over a photo of a man resembling him on the social Networking site, Facebook, which counts some 1.6M Filipino members.
Basically nothing wrong there, well basically.
But even this occasionally jaded writer concedes some malice in the posting of what appears to be a stolen shot.
That’s because of the accompanying note that Rep. Arroyo was at the liquor section of Rustan’s on Katipunan Road Quezon City that seemed to indicate it was during the height of storm Ondoy.
Veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas quoted the caption thus:
Was buying food for keeps… then we saw Mikey Arroyo in Rustans Liquor Section asking the salesman for a brand of hard alcoholic drink. Effin Crazy! Just a few kilometers away from Katipunan, people are needing help for search and rescue, and there he was buying bottles of alcohol. See for yourself and tell me what you think.
Ms. Tordesillas clearly titled her post “Where’s Miket In Ondoy’s Aftermath”
(http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?p=7452)
In a follow-up blog post Ms. Tordesillas now reports:
Mikey Arroyo finds Facebook posts ‘depressing”
In an article written by Gil Cabacungan, Inquirer reported that Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey Arroyo” yesterday pushed for tighter regulation of the Facebook, the world’s leading social networking site, after he claimed to be a victim of a “malicious attack” by one of its members.
“My picture was posted on Facebook with a caption saying I was shopping for wine at the height of “ondoy”. This is another malicious attack on my person. It is so depressing,” Arroyo wrote in an e-mail response to the Facebook post which has appeared in several blogs.
Arroyo claimed he was in Malacañang last Saturday and that it was difficult to cross Katipunan from the village where he lives because of the rising floods. “How could I be at Rustan’s on Katipunan Avenue at the height of Ondoy when Katipunan was impassable at that time? For the record I was in Malañang with my family trying to mobilize rescue and relief operations for people of Metro Manila and for my constituents in my district in Pampanga,” he said.
I first saw the photo with a man that looked like Mikey looking at the liquor section at the convenience store almost midnight of Sunday. My understanding was that it was taken on a Sunday, a day after the great deluge. In reposting the photo, I captioned it, “Where’s Mikey in Ondoy’s aftermath”. .
In the reposting by other bloggers, however, I noticed it was made to appear that the picture was taken last Saturday, at the height of typhoon Ondoy.
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?p=7507
Absent a date stamp on the digital image, there is really no way to ascertain when it was taken.
The only element that could help sort this controversy up is if a witness surfaces.
I doubt that.
All we can do really is to make a visual comparison of the alleged Rustan’s image and that of Rep. Arroyo during a recent TV interview from almost the same angle:
Either our eyes are fooling us or they are telling the truth.
Other point that leaves me disturbed is the hint that Mr. Arroyo wants some action by or on Facebook.
We wait.
