The Chilean ambassador to Manila is mulling legal action against Mark Joseph Tajo Lopez, a University of the Philippines student who submitted an entry to a photo contest that wasn’t his. Chilean Ambassador Roberto Mayorga explained to philstar.net that Calidad Humana Project, which his office organized, wasn’t merely just another “photo contest.”
“The relevant issues in the contest were the messages we asked to be submitted together with the photo, inviting for a better world, and the capability of the winner to explain, as Filipino ambassador, the meaning of the Calidad Humana Project both in the Philippines and abroad,” he said.
Contest organizers met on Monday to assess the incident and in a statement, the body said, “Part of Calidad Humana involves living with integrity and upholding the values of the Filipino people.” “Obviously, Mr. Solis has failed to abide by this and we are considering taking legal action against him,” it added. Solis has apologized in an open letter addressed to Brazilian photographer Gregory John Smith for sending the latter’s photo as an entry to the Chilean embassy contest. MM
