DPWH officials now deep in thought in many places

In another age, a manipulated PR photograph may have just been laughed at by jaded newsroom editors. But in the time of social media, the world gets to cackle along with them. The now infamous image of public works officials deep in thought among the ruins of the seawall along Roxas Blvd after Typhoon Pedring has morphed into a global running joke after it was exposed as having been manipulated. The same three officials have now appeared in the same meditative huddle with Jose Rizal and other national heroes, in the middle of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper," in the iconic album cover of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road," and within music video stills of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance" and Shakira’s “Waka Waka," among many other examples of the social media mob's creativity. Many online comments associated the fake picture with the DPWH's unsavory reputation. "Seawall repair will also be by photoshop," observed architect Paulo Alcazaren on his Facebook page. And the flacks of the DPWH thought they were doing the three officials a favor.

The photo was taken off the DPWH's Facebook page shortly after it was posted. But that was more than enough time for a blogger to take notice. A screen grab was all it took for the image to take on a life of its own and impart a ruthless lesson to other PR machines considering Photoshop as a tactical tool. The irony was that the officials — Undersecretary Romeo Momo, Director Rey Tagudando and District Engineer Mikunug Macud — were actually at the scene inspecting the storm's damage of the seawall, a fact noted by correspondent James Hookway on the Wall Street Journal’s website. “The strangest aspect of the incident might be that top public works officials actually were there and there was no need to release the faked photo," Hookway wrote. Perhaps the real photos lacked sufficient drama. DPWH apologizes to officials In any case, DPWH Public Information Division (PID) head Beth Pilorin clarified in a post on the Facebook page Thursday that the manipulated photo “was not cleared yet before the staff posted it." The PID then issued an apology on Friday morning, which further angered some netizens because it only said sorry to the officials in the photo. “We would like to apologize to Undersecretary Romeo Momo, Director Rey Tagudando and District Engineer Mikunug Macud for whatever inconvenience that may have caused them regarding the photo earlier posted," read the statement. The comments that followed the post collectively asked DPWH to apologize instead to the public. Two hours after its first statement, the department posted an “official statement" on the matter, saying that Momo, Tagudando, and Macud “had nothing to do with the earlier photo posted in the DPWH Facebook Account." While it said that the photo “was not the official photo release of the Department," the statement clarified that “the three officials were actually on site as part of the Department’s Post Disaster Assessment activities." The apology was still addressed to the officials, but DPWH added the phrase “and the general public." The three officials gained some international notoriety after the Washington Post’s BlogPost page told its readers in a headline that "Philippine officials photoshop themselves into typhoon cleanup photo." Online backlash Pierre Albert San Diego, a civil engineer, exposed the glitch point-by-point on his blog Wednesday, calling the incident “a nice sample of the DPWH’s lack of integrity." “If they can fabricate simple things like this, just imagine what these guys can do to progress billings and acceptance of projects," he wrote. The photo ignited the fury of Pinoy netizens, who mocked the Public Works department on their Facebook page. Some even called for the resignation of the photographed officials:

“Sa mga nagsasabi na photoshopped ang pictures ng DPWH.. hindi po yun totoo!!!.. MS Paint po ang gamit nila. XD" – Justin Davis “May I ask the veracity of all the posts here and even the owner of this account…Nahihiya kasi akong magtanong kung napaPHOTOSHOP din ba mga LIQUIDATIONS during auditing? napoPHOTOSHOP din po ba ang mga PICTURES ng mga ACCOMPLISHED PROJECTS? Tanong lang po…" – Anthony Armada Landero. “Can you photoshop a triple-layer highway on EDSA? para naman mabawasan traffic!" – Ryan Aldaba

Some people also made Facebook pages that poked fun at what is now called the “great DPWH photoshop meme." One of these pages even translated the government unit’s acronym to “Department of Photoshopped Works and Hacks". The DPWHERE? page, meanwhile, serves as a venue for people to post their own Photoshopped images, placing the three officials in different scenes like floods and concerts. — Rose-an Jessica Dioquino/TJD/HS, GMA News