An email with the subject "Villar gives fake Havaianas to tabloid reporters" was sent to several e-groups and was forwarded to abs-cbnNEWS.com on Monday. It claimed that Avic Amarillo, Villar's media handler, bought the fake flip-flops from Divisoria for tabloid reporters assigned to cover the NP standard bearer.
Reporters for broadsheets and top television networks, on the other hand, allegedly got original pairs of Havaianas flip-flops as pasalubong (gifts) from the Villar camp's campaign sortie in Hong Kong, the email read.
"We felt stupid. Just because we write for tabloids they would give us fake slippers," the email read, quoting a so-called female tabloid reporter.
"What Amarillo did was she bought fake Havaianas in Divisoria. Hello, of course reporters know how to distinguish between fake and original. Many got angry," a so-called mole in the Villar camp added.
Havaianas, a Brazilian brand, is very popular in the Philippines. A pair of plain rubber flip-flops costs P700 to P800, while those bearing different designs and patterns may carry price tags of over P1,000.
Height of propaganda?
Amarillo, however, strongly denied the rumor surrounding her and the Villar camp.
In a text message to abs-cbnNEWS.com, she made it clear that no Havaianas flip-flops were distributed to reporters assigned to cover the NP standard-bearer's campaign sorties.
"Di ko kinaya to. [This one's] at the height of propaganda. Ako ang nasa black propaganda na ito eh. Wala na talagang distinction between imagined and real? (This is too much to bear. It's at the height of propaganda, and I'm the one in it. Is there really no more distinction between imagined and real?)," Amarillo said.
Amarillo added that she was not even present in Villar's Hong Kong sortie as the email claimed.
For her part, Mira Gadil, another media handler of the Villar camp, laughed off the said rumor.
"Grabe nakakatawa na iyan ah. May fake Havaianas ba talaga? Akala ko chika at biruan lang iyang negative texts na iyan. (That's really funny. Are there really fake Havaianas? I thought all those negative text messages spreading around are just jokes and gossip)," she told abs-cbnNEWS.com in a text message.
Villar's 'mansion'
Just last month, an email entitled "Who owns a house like this?" was sent to several e-groups and news desks. It showed various pictures of a mansion in Salt Lake City with lavish Victorian-style interiors, which was allegedly owned by Villar.
"While Filipinos starve and die because of abject poverty and while Sen. Villar brags that he had poor beginnings and he had helped his poor countrymen over and over again...but look now...he and his family live like this, his greed kills his poverty-stricken fellow Filipinos," the email read.
abs-cbnNEWS.com checked the Snopes.com website, however, and found out that the email has been circulating as early as 2008 -- the mansion was first linked to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. The website added that the mansion is in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, not Salt Lake City.
Snopes.com specializes in investigating urban legends and forwarded email rumors.
"The campaign being waged by Villar's opponents reaches record lows every day, starting with the false accusations of 'Villaroyo.' It only shows that his opponents are insecure and desperate. We pray that they campaign on platforms and capabilities rather than mudslinging," Remulla told abs-cbnNEWS.com in a phone interview last month.
Villar was widely rumored to be President Arroyo's "secret candidate," something that the NP standard bearer vehemently denied.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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