A provincial government’s greeting for the newly elected Pope Leo XIV caught the attention of Filipinos for previously featuring an image of a politician.
“FFTM” or “Follow The Trend Movement,” a Pinoy pop culture-oriented page, on Friday, May 9, posted a screengrab of a Facebook post uploaded by the Misamis Oriental provincial government.
The post, which has since been edited, previously featured an image of Misamis Oriental Governor Peter Unabia beside the greeting and name of the new supreme pontiff.
However, there was no image of Leo in the publication material.
The post has been edited to include the pope’s picture. Unabia’s image was also significantly scaled down.
A screengrab of the edit was also uploaded on Reddit.
A look at the “Edit History” of the post reveals that a media was removed and then another one was added.
The “FTTM” page, as well as other Facebook users, posted a different version of the one uploaded by the provincial government.
It was presumably the previous version that drew flak.
“For me lang ha, ‘di bagay kay pope naka-barong,” the page quipped.
“Before and after atake way consultation daan,” another Facebook user wrote, sharing the first version presumably posted by the provincial government.
Tarpaulin greetings posted by the government and politicians featuring prominent images of public servants usually earn flak from Filipinos, who see it as an “epal” move.
“Epal” is a Filipino term used to describe someone who seeks attention or tries to insert themselves into situations that don’t necessarily involve them.
In 2019, a lawmaker who refiled the “anti-epal bill” sought its swift passage, prohibiting government officials from posting their names and faces on government projects funded by taxpayers’ money.
