Circulating photos of a man who allegedly look like Coco Martin and the actual face of the man. | Photo: Lutong Kahoy / Facebook
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Now it can be told. The trending photos of an alleged Coco Martin lookalike in Cebu were manipulated.
For the past few days, netizens have been circulating photos of a man from Argao, Cebu, who looks similar to the “Batang Quiapo” actor Coco Martin.
Wearing a green jersey shirt and a helmet cap, the man in the photo surely got some of the action star’s facial features from the eyes down to the nose.
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The trending photos can be traced back to a vlogging page named “Lutong Kahoy,” which posted the original video of the vloggers interviewing the said man.
Nonetheless, the posted video indicated that it was “made with AI,” which means the video was manipulated before it was posted. However, the vloggers did not disclose what application they used in manipulating the man’s face.
Netizens deduced that they might have used a face-swapping application and pasted the features of the action star on the face of the man to make him a Coco Martin lookalike..
The man behind the video and circulating photos is James Peter Fano, whom netizens claimed looked nothing like Coco Martin. He also appeared on the same page in previous vlogs––in some cases, wearing the same green jersey shirt. His tattoos also gave him in.
Netizen’s reaction:
Some netizens were shocked to learn that the video was manipulated, with some even feeling betrayed upon finding out that he was not the real Coco Martin lookalike.
Some netizens even schooled other social media users to be responsible in using the platform and to make sure not to be easily deceived by manipulated media.
As of press time, one of the original videos posted on their Facebook page currently has 3.4 million views and 82,000 reactions.