DTCAM page draws flak for how it promoted National Museum on social media

June 2, 2022 - 5:54 PM
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National Museum of the Philippines
Facade of the National Museum of the Philippines in this picture from its Facebook page on May 28, 2022. (Facebook/nationalmuseumofthephilippines)

A caption of a local government unit’s post promoting the National Museum of the Philippines drew flak on social media for its chosen words.

The city government of Manila’s Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts of Manila (DTCAM) on Tuesday invited Pinoys to visit the National Museum of the Philippines and appreciate Filipino culture.

Admission is free from Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Visitors can book their slots through the museum’s website.

“Nestled in what used to be the town where mauser riffles end up the life of Dr. Jose Rizal, these museums are window of our culture as it marvel the mind of new generation,” DTCAM wrote on social media with a heart emoji.

It also said that visitors can expect “gigantic animal skeletons, bewitching fossils, stuffed animals, aged gears and tools from early civilization, differences of Filipino culture, history, early cannons, alluring statues and eye-catching architectural designs.”

DTCAM accompanied its post with some pictures from the museum and thanked Hungry Byaheros, a local food and travel blog, for featuring them.

DTCAM_Nat Museum of the Philippines
(Screengrab by Interaksyon from Facebook/dtcamanila)

The Facebook post has earned 3,200 likes and “love” reactions, over 960 comments and 1,800 shares on the platform.

While others invited their own friends by tagging them in the comments section, some noted how the caption was written.

“Respectfully, please hire better writers,” poet and writer Alfonso Manalastas commented with smiling-face-with-tear emojis.

“Na-stress ako slight sa caption,” another Facebook user said with the same emoji.

“I wanna go there to edit the caption then I can peacefully enjoy the museum,” quipped a different Filipino.

Another online user noticed a wrong spelling in the caption.

The post mentioned “mauser riffles,” which is correctly spelled as “Mauser rifles.”

“Ahm… mawalang-galang na po…” she wrote, attaching a screengrab of the meaning of riffle, which is a verb.

Apart from containing grammatical and spelling errors, the caption also left readers confused as to how the first part of the sentence relates to the second one.

DTCAM in its post credited the Hungry Byaheros, which posted the same caption in 2018.

Hungry Byaheros
(Screengrab by Interaksyon from Facebook/hungrybyaheros)

It also posted the same text in 2021.

By 2022, fan pages supporting Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso began to share it as well.