A photo of a billboard promoting senatorial aspirant and former Interior secretary Benhur Abalos has gone viral on social media. The billboard was made to look like he was described as “kalaban at kriminal” (an enemy and a criminal).
The edited photo was first posted in a Facebook (FB) group of meme enthusiasts on Oct. 16, and made the rounds on other social media platforms such as Reddit and TikTok. Some of the reproductions did not identify the edited version as a spoof.
The unedited photo was first uploaded on X on Oct. 15, where the billboard along Commonwealth Avenue showed an image of Abalos next to the text, “Kalaban ng Kriminal” (an enemy of criminals). The post read:
“Kung sino man po ang graphic artist ni Benhur Abalos, masyado po maliit ang ‘ng’
Mukhang: KALABAN KRIMINAL Benhur Abalos.”
(Whoever Benhur Abalos’ graphic artist is, the ‘ng’ is too small. It looks like: KALABAN KRIMINAL Benhur Abalos.)
The altered photo replaced “ng” (of) with “at” (and).
On Oct. 17, Abalos addressed the viral photo on his official FB page and cautioned netizens against “fake news”. His post read:
The photo is now being investigated by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center. The tarp on Commonwealth Avenue has since been replaced with a different one.
The altered photo posted in the FB group meme$ out 4 du30 (杜特爾特·梅姆斯) garnered 4,500 reactions, 669 shares, and 139 comments.
It was reposted by the FB pages COMPLEX SIMPLICITY (created June 26, 2010) and the page Bhong David (created Oct. 6, 2018), which collectively received more than 15,000 reactions, nearly 4,000 comments, and over 1,500 shares.
