Worth a thousand words

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.

This is no longer guaranteed in the age of artificial intelligence and deepfakes. Malacañang has happily amplified a VERA Files report that AI experts have pronounced the so-called “polvoron video” a deepfake.

The grainy video, released on social media in time for President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address last July, showed someone resembling him snorting a powdery substance, supposedly cocaine.

AI experts who studied the video upon the request of VERA Files said it bore traces of manipulation, notably “face swap.” Among other things, the ear of the man in the video, the experts said, was different from that of BBM’s – a detail that was also pointed out by the National Bureau of Investigation in declaring the video to be an AI-generated fake. Every person’s ear, the NBI said, is unique.

Other pictures and video images, however, are truly worth a thousand words.

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil have learned this the hard way, in their infamous TikTok-worthy photo in Indonesia with a grinning Alice Guo, who flashed the peace symbol while seated between them like a K-drama star.

Abalos and Marbil are still trying to live down the notoriety they earned from that photo.

These days authorities have overreacted, keeping Guo’s face covered almost like a mummy whenever she is escorted in public by police, presumably to prevent any cop from emulating the PNP chief and taking selfies with the dismissed mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.

Meanwhile, a photo of Vice President Sara Duterte also further raised the hackles of congressmen, who groused that they waited 17 hours for her to attend the plenary hearing for her office budget while photos showed she was on a beach in Bicol.

The Office of the Vice President (OVP) had initially condemned the beach story as “fake news and media releases for clickbaits and profit,” explaining that she was “on the road… talking to the people about the current events in our country” during the budget deliberations.

A police report, however, confirmed that the VP in fact stayed in a beach resort on Calaguas Island in Camarines Norte from Sept. 21 until early morning of Sept. 23, the budget hearing day.

Unfazed, the bratinella lectured the irate congressmen about the nuancing in the OVP statement: she left Calaguas at 6:32 a.m., she said, while the budget hearing started at 10 a.m. So technically, she was not on the beach during the budget deliberation.

The House hit back by passing the national budget Wednesday night with the hefty P1.29-billion cut in the OVP budget intact, leaving the VP with just P733 million for 2025. Oh well, Duterte has said she can function even with “zero” budget.

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This week, interesting photos were also released by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, showing former PNP chief Benjamin Acorda Jr. with controversial Chinese businessman Tony Yang, Alice Guo’s brother Wesley and her alleged boyfriend, Mayor Liseldo Calugay of Sual, Pangasinan.

Yang is the elder brother of Michael Yang, the notorious presidential economic adviser of Rodrigo Duterte who has been tagged as a drug dealer and broker of the multibillion-peso deal bagged by Pharmally Pharmaceuticals during the COVID pandemic.

Tony Yang, a Chinese national who claims he can’t speak Filipino, is equally controversial and is said to be powerful in his turf Cagayan de Oro, where he runs several businesses including a steel mill that is believed to house a Philippine offshore gaming operation, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.

Businessmen like Yang typically make it a point to befriend key police officers in their areas of operation.

The photos with Acorda did not look like selfies taken by people who simply want a souvenir shot with public officials they encounter in gatherings or by chance in some public area. They looked like meetings arranged with Acorda, who had been assigned in Sual and became police regional director in Northern Mindanao, which includes Cagayan de Oro.

We’ve seen photos of Alice Guo with government officials including BBM. But those photos look like they were taken in casual encounters. This is something Acorda cannot claim in his photos, which are reminiscent of the Malacañang video showing Rodrigo Duterte meeting with Michael Yang and Pharmally executives in Davao in March 2017.

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Acorda also needed to do more explaining because the photos were bared at the Senate after Raul Villanueva, a former officer of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who now works for PAGCOR, disclosed “rumors” that an ex-PNP chief received payola from Guo and had helped her escape.

The two photos had been circulating for hours before Acorda issued a statement that he loved the Philippines and the PNP and did what was best for the country.

On Wednesday, he issued a more categorical statement, that he did not take money from Alice Guo or engage in illegal activities.

Meanwhile, the PNP yanked out the head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, who said the CIDG would no longer pursue the identity of the ex-PNP chief after Villanueva said it was merely a rumor.

Maj. Gen. Leo Francisco was reassigned to the PNP personnel holding and administration unit of the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management. Coming from the CIDG top post, that can be considered a transfer to the kangkungan or swamp cabbage patch. It’s tantamount to being put on “floating” status.

Francisco was replaced as CIDG chief by a lower-ranking officer – the guy who led the search of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound and arrested Apollo Quiboloy, Davao regional police chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III.

Still on pictures, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said he would limit selfies taken with him, and he hopes people would not take it the wrong way.

Apart from noting that selfies are being “weaponized,” Remulla issued the statement after a man dismissed from the Bureau of Immigration, which is under the Department of Justice, entered his office and took a selfie with him while packing a hand gun.

Considering recent developments involving photographs and video footage, many other folks in and out of government will likely follow Remulla’s lead.