The Office of the Presidential Spokesperson on Friday claimed that its Facebook account got hacked by a former staffer, who had posted a rude and insulting comment against an online reporter and a TV personality in the middle of a televised Palace news briefing.
On its official Facebook page, the OPS posted at around 11:30 a.m.: “si pia at si lourd devera pantay na sa kakupalan” (Pia and Lourd Devera are both smegma-like).
“Kupal” is the Filipino word for smegma, the bodily secretion under a man’s foreskin. The term is used as a pejorative for someone who is an obnoxious jerk or idiot.
While it did not mention any surname, the comment was apparently alluding to Pia Ranada, the Malacanang reporter of online news portal Rappler, who was the one asking questions at the press conference at the time the Facebook post was made.
Another Palace reporter, Pia Gutierrez of broadcast giant ABS-CBN, was not present during the briefing.
“Lourd Devera” meanwhile, seemingly refers to musician Lourd de Veyra, a former news anchor of TV5 and known to be critical of the Duterte administration.
In his own Facebook post, Lourd de Veyra shot back at the Palace communications team.
“Kung kups ako, mas kupal yung mga gumagawa nito na gamit ang pera ng taumbayan [If I’m a smegma, the ones who did this using taxpayers’ money are even worse],” De Veyra said, adding the hashtags “#HuliKaBalbon #TheBestAndTheBrightest.”
Ranada expressed disappointment with the OPS remarks.
“Trolling is bad in itself, trolling incompetently is just on a whole other level of SAD,” she said on Facebook.
The statement from the office of Palace spokesman Ernesto Abella did not offer an apology to either Ranada or De Veyra. It claimed the comment, similar to those expressed by online “trolls,” was made by someone with access to the OPS Facebook account.
That person, whom the OPS did not identify, was no longer connected with the bureau, the statement added.
“The Office of the Presidential Spokesperson said the comment was posted by a former page administrator who is no longer connected with the office,” the statement read.
“The said comment does not reflect the official and personal views of the Presidential Spokesperson or his office on the individuals being referred to,” it added.
The OPS likewise claimed the former staffer’s “administrator’s access” to the Facebook page “was immediately removed.”