It was a picture of domestic bliss-a couple taking their child to a picnic in a public park in Cebu. The pair was laughing and appeared to enjoy an afternoon away from the demands of work and pressure of urban life.

The problem was the man wasn’t having a picnic with his legal family, he was spending time with his mistress. When his wife saw the photo in Sun.Star she had a heart attack (she’s okay or so the man says). The man called up the photographer to ask why he printed it when it was “obvious” that the woman was too young to be his wife. He also said he and his mistress had been able to hide the affair from the wife for so long “pwerte namong tago ani” (we really tried to keep this a secret).

While laughing about the man’s predicament in the office canteen, a colleague from our Bisaya tabloid Superbalita told us of another incident involving the publication of a feature photograph.

He said one of their photographers took a shot of people fishing in the port area. They printed the photo in Superbalita with a caption discussing how the rising prices of goods forced people to take to fishing at the pier area to make a living or catch fish for the dinner table (tungod sa kalisod, namasol na lang)

The problem was one of the fishers (identifiable in the photograph) was a hobbyist and was in no way poor. He goes to the pier every morning, parks his car and then spends time fishing. He went to the Superbalita office to complain. He said the printing of the photograph was okay with him but his friends and colleagues wouldn’t stop teasing him (imagine holding meetings with them in a seafood restaurant). Superbalita had to put out an erratum.