Facebook user Mark Lester Coscolluela Lacsamana scored blogger Thinking Pinoy, Rey Joseph Nieto, for twisting the facts in the circumstances behind the photo showing Vice President Leni Robredo making a yoga pose with a yoga instructor.
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“For shame. So ThinkingPinoy, better known as REY JOSEPH NIETO, twisting facts for his own malicious self interest. What was a completely innocent photo repurposed to slander their target,” Lacsamana posted.
He also slammed how Thinking Pinoy was among those who labelled journalists as “prestitutes” for twisting facts, when he himself committed the same mistake.
“This should be illegal, it probably is. What’s more hypocritical? These people keep calling out our journalists as “prestitutes” as people who twist facts yet here is a blatant example of them doing the same thing,” Lacsamana added.
He then compared how Thinking Pinoy wrote his caption and how the original poster, the yoga instructor herself, captioned her photo.
Thinking Pinoy wrote:
‘Yung ang Diyosa ng Laylayan (a.k.a. AVP Leni Robredo) ay may personal yoga instructor at nagyoyoga sa mismong opisina niya.
Tapos sasagot ang PR team niya ng…
“OMG TP!!! why ka ba so mean to Madam Leni? That’s JUST yoga for chrissakes kaya! So many people do it na kaya!”
May oras para sa Yoga, pero para sa Nina, wala.
Ganda!
On the other hand, here is the post of the yoga instructor, Sarah Salcedo-Rubin:
I got to be VP Leni’s first yoga teacher! Awesome! The class was for the entire office as part of a simple fitness program for government employees at the OVP.”
In the comments section in Lacsamana’s post, he asked lawyer Jesus Falcis if Thinking Pinoy’s post can be grounds for libel and these are Falcis’ and other netizens’ replies:
Facebook user Carlo P. Fernando also piped up, saying that even CHED has Zumba Wednesdays, while Philvolcs has a gym and ping pong table.
When someone asked why Robredo and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) employees did not do yoga somewhere else instead of in the office, Lacsamana said that some companies actually do the same – practice yoga in the office to be “more economical.”
UPDATE:
We found another OVP staff who uploaded a photo of the yoga session with Robredo and the rest of her staff. It was uploaded by Salve Duplito and showed several employees at the OVP after a session Duplito also said that the yoga instructor even gave them a discounted rate of P200 per head.
In Duplito’s comments section, someone asked what time the yoga session started, to which Duplito replied that they started past 6pm.
When another Facebook user commented on how the people’s tax money was used, Duplito replied by saying that it was KKB (kanya-kanyang bayad).
Someone supported Duplito by saying that it is not illegal to hold yoga classes in government offices as part of the government’s wellness programs.
Duplito also said the same thing about how the government encourages a fitness program for its offices.
As for whether the government indeed released a memorandum circular (MC) to promote wellness programs among its employees, we did a quick Google search.
We found that the Civil Service Commission did in fact release MC No. 6 of 1995 on April 20, 1995, which requires all government agencies to adopt “The Great Filipino Workout” as a part of the agencies’ physical fitness and sports development program.
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What is “The Great Filipino Workout”? The memorandum circular stated that this is the physical fitness supporting the national policy of “Sports-For-All” under the National Fitness and Sports Development Program of the Government. It was developed to emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle and regular physical fitness exercises to reduce the risk of developing a heart disease.
The program requires setting aside a reasonable time for weekly physical fitness exercise for government officers and employees and enough time for physical fitness activities by participants during seminars, training, and similar occasions.
This could be what Duplito was referring to as the memorandum circular that called on government agencies to give time for their officers and employees to engage in fitness and wellness programs.
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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