The two eldest daughters of Vice President Leni Robredo called out social media users who are impersonating them and leaving distasteful jokes on the livestream of their sibling’s graduation ceremony.
The vice president, Aika and Tricia are currently in New York to attend their youngest sibling Jillian Robredo‘s commencement exercises at the Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. She is part of New York University‘s class of 2022.
A live stream of the all-university commencement was streamed on NYU’s YouTube account. It included a speech from Grammy-winning artist Taylor Swift, who was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts.
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Amid the graduation ceremony, Tricia, the second eldest daughter of the vice president, was tagged by a Twitter user who made her aware of a comment she supposedly left.
The comment was from a YouTube user who used Tricia’s name and profile pic. It reads: “Aiks, gusto mo bang maging nutribun tayo? (weary face emoji)”
Tricia then denied that she was the one who commented on the livestream and asked the poser to stop.
“This is not me and I will never joke about something like this. Whoever’s doing this, please stop. :),” Tricia tweeted.
She also called out the poser for dropping an insensitive joke.
“I’m not sure what bothers me more: Being impersonated on the comments section of the livestream of my sister’s graduation or people thinking that this is something to joke about. Hindi nakakatawa at hindi nakakatuwa. Pakiusap—please stop,” Tricia wrote in a separate response to the YouTube poser.
“You’re concerned about historical revisionism but you joke about nutribun and red-tagging, as if these are things to be taken lightly. I will never reduce the atrocities of Martial Law for clout and entertainment. Neither should you,” she added.
Nutribun is a known supplement in feeding programs to combat malnutrition among Filipino elementary students during late Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s regime.
It was introduced by the United States Agency for International Development but one of its longtime media advisors said that former first lady Imelda Marcos claimed credit for it by putting her name on the bags before distributing the nutribuns.
Meanwhile, another Twitter user made Aika, the eldest daughter of the vice president, aware of her own impersonator who commented: “merlot shot puno.”
“Shot puno” refers to Leni’s remark when she went on Facebook live to thank the supporters who gave her gifts during her campaign.
One of them was a larger-than-usual mug. The vice president joked about how she would take her coffee using the mug, repeating the remark of one of the staff in the background who exclaimed, “Shot puno!”
Aika also denied dropping a comment on the live stream.
“I do not talk like this. Nor do I post messages like this on public livestreams. Please stop,” she said.
Their mother, Leni, early this week reminded the public to be vigilant of the information they may find online, especially after social media accounts using her Angat Buhay program’s name were created after she announced her post-election plans.