One Twitter user noticed how many netizens slammed the Ramon Magsaysay Award they thought was given to Senator Leila de Lima when the recipient was actually the senator’s aunt, former Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) chief Lilia de Lima.
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AMPOTA RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARDEE SI *LILIA *DE LIMA TAPOS NAGWALA MGA KA-DDS NATIN KASI AKALA NILA SI LEILA. I'M CACKLING ADSHAGSGAHA pic.twitter.com/hrOYDsrV3A
— Sandro Marudo (@kaeofficial) July 27, 2017
@kaeofficial even tried to compile some of the comments of the netizens who mistook the senator for her aunt, Lilia, and other Twitter users had a field day over the mistake.
Someone suggested the trolls are probably merely instructed to attack Senator de Lima with or without reason.
haha. kayo naman the trolls are just earning their keep. they were just taught to attack de lima, no specifics. haha.
— cargo (@cargog) July 27, 2017
Kaaliw ang usapang tanga. Basta delima, dive attack agad. 😂😂
— Ariana Brigida (@aryasatrapik) July 27, 2017
Others reacted with GIFs.
— Daenerys Tagayan 🍻 (@kristinamisajon) July 27, 2017
— KHAL DERO (@keiakamatsu) July 27, 2017
— ｊａｎａｙａ (@jnyahsa) July 27, 2017
Some said the mistake stemmed from having only free data, which prevented Facebook users from reading the full content of the Rappler article that they are reacting to.
Nagagawa ng free data.. HAHAHAHAHA
— KRISTINE ABBEY 👑 (@MsKristineAbbey) July 27, 2017
Makikita king sinu-sino ang mga kelangang magpatingin sa ophthalmologist
— Renz Rufil (@AlbertWesker_28) July 27, 2017
Di talaga nagbabasa tong mga to. Apparently, Lilia and Leila look the same to them.
— Juan Suarez (@xjuansuarezx) July 27, 2017
Another one said, “Paki-request si Ms. Lilia magpa name change for the benefit of our DDS kababayan.”
paki-request si Ms. Lilia magpa name change for the benefit of our DDS kababayan
— Ross (@rosselle) July 27, 2017
However, @kaeofficial also pointed out how there are also “dilawans” who made the same mistake as the bashers of Senator de Lima.
Pero may isang dilawan naman na proud hahahahahahahahhahahaha yoko na
— Sandro Marudo (@kaeofficial) July 27, 2017
We headed to Rappler’s post, where @kaeofficial saw many of the mistaken comments about the de Limas and the comments section was indeed full of misconceptions about who the Ramon Magsaysay awardee is.
At least one of those mistaken admitted to reacting every time a de Lima is involved.
Some of Senator de Lima’s supporters also made the mistake of congratulating her for the award.
Other netizens tried to differentiate the two de Limas from each other, with one adding a reference to this Manila Standard article about who Lilia de Lima is.
“I hope those who don’t know who PEZA Director General Lilia de Lima is (and not the embattled senator Leila) would read up on how foreign investors are in praises for her service in the past 20+ years. All under her belt: 164 IT centers (housing call center and BPO offices), 43 IT parks (hosting chops and semiconductor factories, including makers of chips of 98 percent cellular phones), 19 tourism ecozones (hotels and resorts), medical tourism parks (world-class hospitals like St. Luke’s), 10 agro-industrial parks (to produce and process pineapples, coffee and rice and other agro produce), 68 manufacturing zones,” one netizen wrote.
And we agree with what a netizen suggested – to read and comprehend before reacting.
“The comments section never fail to show how low our comprehension has become. Magbasa muna pls lang,” she wrote.
You can read more comments under Rappler’s post here:
Former PEZA chief Lilia de Lima and the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) were among the awardees of the 2017 Ramon Magsaysay Awards, as announced on July 27.
De Lima served as PEZA’s first director general and continued to do so for 21 years from 1995 to 2016, under Presidents Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo, and Aquino III.
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The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) described de Lima as this: “Under Lilia de Lima’s leadership, PEZA enabled the rise of the Philippines as one of the region’s top investment destinations…. During her term, PEZA’s accomplishments have been nothing short of spectacular.”
The award was in recognition of de Lima’s “unstinting sustained leadership in building a credible and efficient PEZA, proving that the honest, competent, and dedicated work of public servants can, indeed, redound to real economic benefits to millions of Filipinos.”
PETA was recognized for its “bold, collective contributions in shaping theater arts as a force for social change.”
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, started in 1957, recognizes persons who address problems in Asian human development “with courage and creativity, and in doing so have made contributions that have transformed their societies for the better.” The awarding ceremony will be held on August 31, former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s birth anniversary.
The former PEZA chief is Senator de Lima’s aunt, who was said to have referred to herself once as “the original Attorney L. de Lima.”
A Philippine Star article noted that then Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima is Lilia de Lima’s niece and godchild. The same report said that the senator was named “Leila,” sounding almost like “Lilia,” because her mother wanted her to grow up to be a lawyer, too.
This is not the first case of mistaken identity. On July 25, a Facebook post went viral after it showed a netizen mistaking singer/composer Jose Mari Chan for Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison.
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