Filipina actors-turned-politicians Aiko Melendez and Julian Trono drew flak on social media on Tuesday, June 20 after posting a TikTok video dancing inside the Quezon city session hall.
In a Twitter post, user @iamdeoenalpe called out Melendez and Trono, who currently serve as Quezon City councilor and Sangguniang Kabataan Federation President, respectively.
"Anong nagyayari sa mga politicians ngayon? Wala namang problema mag Tiktok — pero sana igalang naman yung session hall. Lugar po ‘yan para gumawa ng batas hindi po para mag tiktok. Respeto naman po sana, Councilor Aiko Melendez & SK President Julian Trono," the user wrote.
The TikTok video showed Melendez and Trono dancing to the tune of "Touch My Body" by Maria Carey while inside the QC session hall.
Another video showed the actress and other district councilors Dorothy Delarmente, Wency Lagumbay, and Chuckie Antonio dancing to the same song.
@aikomelendez2015 With Sk Federation President for QC councilor @Julian Trono ♬ Touch My Body
@aikomelendez2015 With our majority floor leader Dorothy Delarmente and konsis @Chuckieantonio @WencyLagumbay ♬ Touch My Body
Netizens were quick to call out the actors' actions, saying that the session hall is not a "playground."
However, according to Melendez, the act was done "before her session."
"Please Read the caption po. Clearly, it says “before session,” it means wala pa roll call, and that was 30 mins before session, so wala kami violate na ruling. FYI… I know the ruling," she wrote in the comment section.
Aside from this, Aiko clarified that they were just celebrating since the "additional 1000 bonuses" of their employees were approved.
"We were also just celebrating because yesterday it was finally calendared in our agenda to approve the additional 10000 bonuses for our employees dahil nakuha namen ang COA unqualified opinion 3rd year in a row," she revealed.
As of writing, the actress' TikTok post is still up but the comment section is already turned off.
Under the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, the country upholds public officials to the highest degree of excellence, professionalism, intelligence, and skill.
Also, provided in Section 4 that they should ‘discourage wrong perceptions of their roles as dispensers or peddlers of undue patronage.’
