THE Los Angeles Police Department had a laugh over someone’s fake identification card using a photo of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
On Wednesday, March 10, vice officers retrieved a California ID with the name “Norman D.” They were quick to identify the ID as fake when they recognized the face of the Philippine president in it.
In a tweet, the Rampart Division of the LAPD said: “Vice Officers recognized the picture used on a fake ID, to be that of the President of the Philippines. Good thing our Officers patrol Historic Filipino Town and are up to speed. Nice try.”
The LAPD did not specify the exact location where the ID was found and did not respond to the Asian Journal’s request for comment.
The tweet has since been met with good humor from netizens.
“A for effort and an F for execution,” one Twitter user said.
Another netizen wondered: “That’s actually very witty… gotta give them one for their humor… wonder if there [are] ‘extra’ charges for impersonating a country’s leader?”
“Did he use his name as well? Announcement to citizens of Glendale ‘Rodrigo Duterte, has relocated to our beloved town,’” the user added.
However, one netizen questioned LAPD Rampart’s post. “I don’t understand this tweet. Is Duterte’s photo just posted around the neighborhood in HiFi because I highly doubt that,” she pointed out.
LA’s Historic Filipinotown — nicknamed HiFi — was designated in July 2002, becoming the first official geographic locale outside of the Philippines honoring the Filipino community.
It exists within the section of Echo Park south of the 101 Freeway, which was the hub for Filipino immigrants in the early 1900s.
In 2019, the global culture and lifestyle magazine Time Out released a list of the 50 coolest neighborhoods in the world and ranked Historic Filipinotown fifth on the list.
In the extensive list, Time Out remarked that “HiFi is a spirit as much as an area, a place that feels refreshing and honest in a Los Angeles landscape that is quickly becoming over-funded and monotonous.”
