Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Philippines' Newest Internet Sensation

He is currently the top trending topic on Twitter for the Philippines, and also became a trending topic worldwide. He has more than 37,000 "likes" on Facebook, and this number continues to grow by the minute. The internet is abuzz by this new Filipino internet sensation who has caught the people's attention overnight. He's no singer or dancer or actor--he's Christopher Lao.

Christopher Lao became a national sensation overnight after the video of a news report on GMA-7's 24 Oras featured him. The news report showed him driving through deep flood waters (with his green Nissan Sentra Exalta) along Mother Ignacia street in Quezon City on August 2, 2011. As he was at the middle of the flooded portion, water started to get in his car, causing it to float. It was so bad that bystanders had to rush to push his car out of the flood and towards dry land. This whole thing was caught on camera by the GMA-7 news team, and after this ordeal, GMA-7 reporter Jun Veneracion rushed over to interview the man. The reporter asked him why he decided to pull off that  stunt, knowing that his car probably wouldn't make it. Obviously embarrassed, the Filipino-Chinese man started to make up excuses and blamed everyone but himself. He blamed the bystanders for not telling him that cars wouldn't be able to get past the flood, and blamed the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for not putting up signs that the road was not passable, or at least putting some barriers there. As if that wasn't enough, he even blamed the GMA-7 news team for not telling him that his car wouldn't be able to make it through the flood (I mean, how could they possibly tell him if he's on the other side of the flooded portion of the street?).

The news report was posted on YouTube yesterday, and has since had tens of thousands of views. The number of likes on a certain Facebook page swelled from about 4,000 to 17,000 in an hour, and the "likes" keep pouring in. He was a tredning topic on Twitter WORLDWIDE last night, and still is the top trending topic on Twitter in the Philippines. His famous line "I should have been informed" may very well be the new internet meme for 2011, following the footsteps of "Major major" by beauty queen Venus Raj in August 2010.


Mr. Lao, who apparently is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law, is now a national laughingstock. It's a shame that it had to come to this, but it was his fault anyway. His own lack of judgment and common sense brought his own downfall, and on national television too. If he had admitted his mistakeand hadn't resorted to illogical finger-pointing, there wouldn't have been all those Lao-related Like pages on Facebook, and he could have lived this day just like any other day.

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