On January 28, 2024, Veronica Balayo, a TikTok user, posted photos of herself that showed how much she resembled Belen Ocampo, the mother of well-known historian Ambeth Ocampo.
While casually exploring the National Museum of Fine Arts, the social media user suddenly saw the photo and jokingly said to her officemate that it was her.
“We were just casually looking and appreciating all the artworks. Actually joke joke ko lang talaga ‘yun na parang ako but after seeing the photo sinabi ko sa officemate ko bakit parang ako? sabi nila, ‘oo nga’ and then ‘yun na nag picture ako together with the photo without even knowing kung sino ‘yun [We were just casually looking and appreciating all the artworks. Actually, I’m just joking around saying that it was me but after seeing the photo, I asked my officemate ‘Why does the photo look like me?’ They said, ‘yes,’ and then I took a picture together with the photo without even knowing who it was],” she said.
After seeing the circulating photo featuring a woman posing next to the portrait of his mother displayed at the museum, Professor Ocampo acknowledged Balayo’s post, stating, “Trending on Tiktok video this morning was the post of Veronica Balayo, a recent visitor to the National Museum who resembles a photo-oleo of my mother from the 1950s! The video has earned over 400,000 likes!”
Many fascinated social media users expressed their delight at the apparent “reincarnation” of the professor’s mother, and some of the historian’s followers even urged him to meet Balayo in person.
Ambeth R. Ocampo is a renowned historian, scholar, cultural administrator, writer, novelist, and curator from the Philippines and was once the chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. He is most known for his works on José Rizal and Philippine history.
The post went viral, garnering over 600,000 likes and 5.5 million views as of today.
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