Pacquiao photo endorsing ally’s political rival, fake

Manny Pacquiao was dragged into Visayan politics when pocket calendars showing him endorsing an ally’s political rival surfaced last weekend in Negros Occidental.

The pocket calendars showed Pacquiao, who is running for a congressional post in the lone district of Saranggani, raising the hand three-term Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella.

Puentevella is challenging incumbent Bacolod City mayor Evelio Leonardia, who is running for election, in the May 10 elections.

Pacquiao's personal trainer Buboy Fernandez was shocked to see pocket calendars of the Filipino boxing icon raising Punetevella’s hand.

"That is not the way Manny raises hands. You be the judge," he said in an interview posted Monday on Bacolod-based news site Visayan Daily Star.

Fernandez, who was in Bacolod last Friday, said the photo was "doctored".

He said the "irregularities" in the photo showed that Pacquiao and Puentevella's hands are "not proportioned."

Fernandez said Pacquiao in the photo appeared to have a different hand and a different arm, while Puentevella appeared to be wearing two different coats.

The photo also showed the two have the same height, but Pacquiao is shorter than Puentevella.

Leonardia's campaign manager Councilor Greg Gasataya said the incident raises the question of character. "This may be just another photoshop job and a small thing to some people, but behind it is somebody who is running for mayor."

"This is about character... If he can doctor such a photo, what else do you think has Puentevella doctored, and will doctor in the future?" Gasataya added.

David Mikael Taclino Inyu
Web Development and Design Creative Writer

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