#NasaanAngPangulo trends yet again as speculations about PBBM’s physical whereabouts swamp social media
Social media went abuzz with speculations about the physical whereabouts of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. (PBBM) during the height of Typhoon Paeng (International name: Nalgae), which had left a trail of death and destruction after it tore through the Philippines on October 28 and 29.
Forty-eight individuals reportedly died, while almost a million people were affected due to the onslaught of Paeng, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, but President Marcos was yet to make a personal visit or aerial inspection of the affected areas, as past presidents had done.
Instead PBBM presided over an emergency full council meeting with the NDRRMC via Zoom on Saturday, wherein he lamented the high death tool from the typhoon.
“I would like to start with the flooding in Maguindanao, simply because we have to already look at it dahil ang daming casualty,” Marcos said at the meeting.
“It will be important to us to look back and see why this happened, na hindi natin naagapan ito na 67 ang casualty, that seems very high for a flooding incident.”
“So maybe if we could start with there first, just to give me a better idea of what happened, what caused the flooding and bakit hindi natin sila na-evacuate at nagkaganyan ang casualty, napakataas?,” Marcos added.
Aside from the Zoom meeting, Marcos was yet to make a public appearance in the flesh after the typhoon.
On Twitter, the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo started trending when netizens began scrutinizing PBBM’s Zoom background for any hints as to where the president where video calling from.
Some zeroed in on the electrical outlet on the wall behind Marcos that was visible on his Zoom call and hinted that the president might be oversees, particularly Japan.
Still it was not enough proof that Marcos was out of the country, as the same electric outlet configuration can be seen in newer condominiums and offices. But the speculation grew strong enough for the Office of the Press Secretary OIC Undersecretary Cheloy Garafil to address them by saying “Wala po siya sa Japan (He is not in Japan),” to reporters on Sunday.
Garafil’s statement still does not directly state where the president is. He merely denied rumors that Marcos was in Japan, which means he could be in one of the 194 other countries in existence (including the Philippines). Garafil could have stated categorically where the president was but instead chose to equivocate.
Memes soon followed, which included a Halloween costume idea about a missing president and a text-based guessing contest on Marcos’s whereabouts.
