Public officials can’t avoid being photographed in public

HOUSE leaders on Wednesday said that as a public official, Vice President Sara Duterte surrenders a certain degree of her privacy and that having her photo taken at the airport is but a natural consequence of her entry to public service.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin, and 1-Rider Rep. Rodge Gutierrez gave their thoughts on the latest reaction of VP Duterte on the photo that was taken of the official at the airport as she left for Germany at the height of Typhoon Carina, criticizing the lax security.

“Once you enter into public service, you somehow surrender a certain degree of privacy, unfortunately. And that's been the problem not only of one individual public official but it is actually shared by all of us,” Adiong said.

“Once you do enter into this kind of service, you automatically – deliberately or not – share your life to the public and the public will also enjoy a certain, I don't know if it's imaginative, a certain power over you, that whatever you do, either publicly or privately, they tend to feel that they have a right to know everything that you do,” he added.

Garin agreed with Adiong, saying the airport is a public place and VP Duterte is a public official.

“It’s a public place … Siyempre kilala siya, sikat sila, bakit di pupunta yan, ma'am makiki-picture naman. It's something that is expected in a public place,” Garin said.

“If we need to beef up security, it’s because if there are threats or we need to secure the area because we have more tourist coming into the Philippines and not because a certain individual got a photo,” she added. “These are part and parcel of the risk we face as government employees and government officials. I myself, with due courtesy to the vice president, wouldn't blame the setup of the airport because it's a public place.”

Gutierrez said even private persons cannot expect much about privacy in a public place such as an airport.

“It's a public place, we can't really expect much privacy. We can't expect privacy as private persons, paano pa kaya as public officials?” Gutierrez said.