The Great DPWH Photoshop meme: Made in China, Imported to the Philippines

Not only is everything here made in China nowadays, even our public officials are ripping off crackpot ideas from their Chinese counterparts.

The DPWH Facebook page recently came under fire with this now historic Photoshopped image of three officials inspecting the post-Pedring carnage along Roxas Boulevard:

This was such an obviously Photoshopped image (and a bad Photoshop job at that) that engineer/blogger Pierre Albert San Diego did a quick logical analysis of the image and immediately took them to task for this on his blog.

The DPWH apparently wanted a “better” photo for their site inspection and fabricated one with a better angle. For San Diego, the issue was more than just crappy Photoshop skills, but pointed to a lack of integrity of the department. If they took the time to fake a PR photo, what other underhanded things are they capable of?

Shit, even my mom can do that in CS5. I didn’t even go to lighting analysis because I’m not a photoshop expert, but I sure as hell know that I’m better at photoshop than the guy that did this hack job.

Some say this is a very minor issue, but I see this as a nice sample of DPWH’s lack of integrity. If they can fabricate simple things like this, just imagine what these guys can do to progress billings and acceptance of projects. Also, while relatively mild, isn’t this a classic example of “Utak Wangwang?” While unethical and unnecessary, they thought they could get away with fabricating photos so they tried to.

Later on, people realized this wasn’t the first time this happened. The Daily Mail reported three Chinese highway officials had similarly faked an inspection photo and were caught in their own Photoshop scandal last July.

As the Daily Mail reported,the Chinese inspection created an Internet meme in China, with Photoshopped images of the three officials in outlandish locations like the moon landing and inspecting dinosaurs in prehistoric times popping up on social media sites.

Not to be outdone, Filipinos have created their own meme involving the three hapless DPWH officials. A number of them have been collected in this hilarious Plopculture Tumblr page.

Ironically the best place to find the latest photoshopped creations is right on the DPWH’s own Facebook page, which has (quite foolishly) allowed the public to post anything to its photo albums.

That obviously isn’t a very wise Facebook page policy for any organization – public or private. The resulting spoof photos posted there are hilarious however. And although the DPWH has suffered enough, I can’t help but join in on the fun with some of the funnier examples, ranging from the DPWH inspecting Abbey Road, visiting Lord Voldermort, hobnobbing with Chef Gordon Ramsey, and being at the White House during the famous takedown of Osama Bin Laden.

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And in a mashup of recent Internet memes, here are the three DPWH guys with their latest inspector, Shamcey Supsup.

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Coming soon, Oprah will state on NBC News that “hands down”, the DPWH officials did a better Photoshop job than their Chinese counterparts.