Panelo wails over meme: It’s tantamount to ‘defamatory imputation’

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo has called out a Facebook page for sharing a “political meme” of him supposedly “endorsing” opposition senatorial candidates for the May 13 elections, noting that it “amounts to defamatory imputation.”

Panelo was reacting to a post of Facebook Page “Malacañang Events and Catering Services” showing the Palace official, on an altered photo, apparently endorsing senatorial bets of the opposition.

The meme was photoshopped from Panelo’s press briefing Wednesday when he bared an expanded matrix of personalities allegedly behind an attempt to discredit President Rodrigo Duterte.

“While we understand that the post is a political meme, which is the norm in this campaign season, the same however amounts to a defamatory imputation,” Panelo said in a statement Thursday night.

https://www.facebook.com/MalacanangEvents/photos/a.153596708612486/358783924760429/?type=3&theater

Panelo, who also serves as Duterte’s chief legal counsel, then called on”purported fact-checkers of Facebook” to do their job and “show their impartiality.”

Panelo said the post “is nothing but false news dished out by the supporters of the political opposition which by its own reckoning is headed for a resounding debacle.”

“The attempt at maliciously misleading the voters by circulating on-line the bogus endorsement, shows that this representation has been effective in neutralising the black propaganda spread against (President Rodrigo Duterte), his family and this Administration, which the purveyors of the false news hope to succeed in impairing the credibility of the presidential spokesperson,” Panelo said. /kga