The People’s Television Network (PTV) has blamed text for a tweet Tuesday night that mentioned the trending hashtag #DutertePalpak.
The state-run network said members of the social media team responsible for the erroneous post will face sanctions.
“PTV New Media deeply regrets the error and takes full responsibility for the oversight. The management will certainly institute disciplinary actions against members of the social media team who are behind the erroneous posting,” it said.
PTV said the hashtag was the result of “predictive systems in the text entry phase and a failure to adequately review and screen the message that actually got posted.”
The trending hashtag was used in PTV’s Twitter post of link to a story on Duterte’s call for local government units to provide more face masks amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.
The social media caption of its tweet read: “President Rodrigo R. #dutertepalpak BTS reiterated his order to provide free masks for the public especially to those who cannot buy their own.”
The tweet was deleted immediately but not before netizens were able to take screenshots.
The hashtag #DutertePalpak was among the trending topics on Twitter since Monday as the country marked the anniversary of the lockdown with increasing number of positive cases and the reimposition of granular lockdowns, uniform curfew and liquor ban.