Mayor Timoteo Villar III of Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan drew criticism from the public for violating enhanced community quarantine rules by allegedly holding a birthday celebration last May 6.
Town councilor Dickerson Villar, the mayor’s son, uploaded two videos of the “midnight harana” on his Facebook page. In the videos, the mayor can be seen shaking hands with visitors and blowing out a candle on a cake.
Screenshot from vddkonstrak.nsupplies facebook page
(Gen. Sinas apologizes for birthday celebration, says photos were “edited” and “old”)
The videos have since been taken down but can be viewed here.
Mayor Villar denied the allegations in an interview on Radyo Aksyon, saying the gathering was not a celebration nor a party.
“May social distancing din po ‘yun. Nagkataon lang sa picture siguro, gano’n ang nangyari. Pero po wala pong nangyaring handaan, wala pong nangyaring selebrasyon. Pagbati lamang, pasasalamat,” Villar said.
[Social distancing was observed. The photo might have made it look otherwise, that’s what happened. But no feast happened. There was no celebration. They only came to greet me and say thanks.]
According to him, the people in the videos were all APOR (authorized persons outside of residence) who followed him home after finishing their duty at the town’s checkpoints.
“Lahat ng kapitan, sumasama sa checkpoint. Walang sibilyan na pumunta doon, walang unauthorized person,” Villar continued.
[It just happened that all the barangay captains manned the checkpoints. There were no civilians present, no unauthorized person.]
Villar brought up the possibility of the pictures being faked: “Palagay ko may mga pagbabago dun sa pictures eh. May mga pinalitan sila…. Siguro pinagdikit-dikit nila…. Kaya ‘yung social media, hindi naman perpekto.”
[I think there were changes in the pictures. They manipulated them so people would look like they were close to each other…. That’s why social media is never perfect.]
In a telephone interview with Inquirer Villar suggested that the videos were being spread maliciously.
“The town is COVID-19-free because we strictly follow and implement guidelines so why would we disregard them?” he said, adding that “maybe others are blowing up this issue because they are envious that we have no infections.”
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