Department of Tourism (DOT) headed by Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco have been in the hotseat lately because of the new promotional video that they released contains stock footage from different countries posing as a tourist spot in the Philippines.
Of course, a number of netizen including politician in the Philippines are critical of this blunder, prompting DOT to terminate the contract with the DDM. With all these development, social media users are trolling DOT by posting tourists spots of other countries adding the name to that of the Philippines tourist destinations.
The Pyramid of Egypt as Chocolate Hills of Bohol.
Mount Fuji in Japan as Mount Apo in the Davao Region, and Cotabato in Soccsksargen.
The Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, posing as the Maria Cristina Falls in Iligan City.
Of course they will include the Dolomite Beach, Manila, which uses the photo of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Then the iconic Binondo–Intramuros Bridge and San Juanico Bridge using the photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Califronia.
Facebook user Jenny Ranoco made her bucketlist that includes Aurora Blvd. in Cubao, Enchanted Kingdom, Eastwood, Mall of Asia and the famous Bangui Winmills in Ilocos Norte.
And last but certainly not the least, Atty. Chel Diokno jesting that his photo in the Roman Colosseum is the Intramuros in Manila.
Then this IG post of Tricia Robredo with her sisters and mother Atty. Leni Robredo, the post includes the hashtag #iykyk, which stands for “if you know, you know.” The photo was taken in Budapest, Hungary and we Matthias Church as their backdrop.
These posting may appear to nothing more than jokes for their face value, but I’m hoping that Tourism Dept. (DOT) and the country in general will be able to recover from this fiasco and move on and improve their campaigns in inviting tourists in the country.
I’ll more than happy to see a promotional video similar to this video that Tiktok user Josh Chua created;