Health Sec. Francisco Duque III threw an emotional fit over the Commission on Audit's findings that there were "deficiencies" in how his department used P67 billion in taxpayers' money. But no one knows pain more than Filipinos, who saw through what they perceived as a soft boi ploy by Duque.
Culture has an important role to play in the way human beings experience and express pain, and for Filipinos who have endured suffering under colonizers and corrupt government officials, among others, language stands as proof of the depth of how society navigates these negative emotions.
In Tagalog, apart from "warak na warak", there's sakit, kirot, antak, and hilab. And if today's meme culture (which arguably is a language of its own) were to add, there's the word "awit", the contraption of the common expression "aw, sakit!". If people evolve, so does language.
Which is why it shouldn't come to anyone's suprise how Duque's well-documented sad boi moment unleashed a wave of memes this week. They are as much social commentary as they are comedy, meant to deliver the message that no top government official is in position to romanticize personal suffering in order to evade accountability.
In some way, it's also as a mechanism of Filipinos to weather the pain of knowing how the taxes you paid for did not really end up where they are most needed.
We rounded up some of the best Duque memes we found this week for hopefully, some comic relief.
A few brands even felt they could join in on the trend.
If Christian Gaza, the guy known for having asked actress Erich Gonzales to a coffee date through a billboard and was eventually convicted as a scammer businessman, can make fun of you, then something must be terribly wrong.
Then here's our top pick starring One More Chance's Popoy, father of all sad bois, as voiced by of course, an emotional Duque.
Have a restful weekend.
Reportr is now on Quento. Download the app or visit the Quento website for more articles and videos from Reportr and your favorite websites.
