Andronico Del Rosario
Most people will recognize her last name, but associate her with someone far removed from her pedigree, but people should know her name: Ma. Antonia Odelia Gregorio Arroyo—or simply Maoi Arroyo.
Maoi is daughter of former Senator and statesman Joker Arroyo and the late Odelia Gregorio Arroyo, the former Ambassador to the Philippines of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. And no, it’s not the one off the coast of Spain.
One of the most important things I learned from my father is professionalism. To work with people you abhor, even people who have hurt you, if it is in the service of the Filipino people. It's not about forgiveness, it's about loving the country more than you hate someone else. pic.twitter.com/wKEARSGhem
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 13, 2020
My mom rebuilt homes and farms after Ondoy and Yolanda. She supplied shoes to poor kids & medicines to the PGH Pedia cancer ward. Always she prioritized the poor and the sick regardless of religion or region. pic.twitter.com/CuTkESftYW
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 13, 2020
She has (and still leads) a few companies and an impact fund that seeks to eradicate income and access poverty in the Philippines. As for awards, well, her LinkedIn profile speaks for itself.
However, if it were just these, there’s no way she would become one of the current focal points of those who still believe in Apo Lakay. What she did was something that really earned the seemingly undying rage of those who defend the Marcoses with all their might.
She hijacked #MarcosTunayNaBayani—along with other pro-Marcos hashtags—on microblogging site Twitter.
So paano naging #MarcosTunayNaBayani? https://t.co/NVJNEoWFMF
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 11, 2020
Paano ulit naging #MarcosTunayNaBayani? https://t.co/qlzGwi459v
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 11, 2020
At least si Aguinaldo binenta niya yung Pilipinas. Eh paano si #MarcosTunayNaBayani? https://t.co/446WbPJs6f
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 11, 2020
Dito kay #MarcosTunayNaBayani nagsimula ang fake news. Tremd-setter talaga siya sa kasinungalingan! https://t.co/pOaJHF6dMs
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 11, 2020
Talino talaga ni #MarcosTunayNaBayani here are declassified briefings to the US President na yung pag deklara niya nang Martial Law ay para tumagal siya sa pagnanakaw.
Link to CIA sourcehttps://t.co/0dHee75o7j
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 11, 2020
Grabe talaga, paano kaya naging #MarcosTunayNaBayani? https://t.co/IuHfFxEfPA
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 11, 2020
Fun fact #MarcosTunayNaBayani crowd. Ping Lacson was lead in this case. Witnesses reported a military helicopter dumping 1st the body & the body parts. Lacson found some "hints of rape but had no heart to tell the family". Boyet was probably tortured & killed in front of his dad. https://t.co/BQjG5d0F5h
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 12, 2020
#MarcosTunayNaBayani people: This is the 1985 famine in Negros and the little boy's name is Joel Ablong. The little girl in the other photo was from Bacolod. They died slow deaths because #MarcosMagnanakaw pic.twitter.com/PiuVaWN0Gm
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 13, 2020
These facts made her one of the public enemies of the Marcos zealots, who came charging in—first with supposed facts and anecdotes, but later resorted to what can only be described as a classic move: name-calling and attacking the person directly.
Bit much? You can visit her profile on Twitter and see the tweets in sequence here: @maoiarroyo.
Maoi has experienced a lot of personal attacks—and we mean A LOT—on Twitter. She probably still is, seeing that she’s not shy about expressing her thoughts about the current administration.
Oooh. The hypocrisy is particularly juicy. https://t.co/UuMdtAboM9
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 13, 2020
Hindi kasi pwede #BakunaMatata. Invest in vaccine production facilities NOW so that we can make enough for everyone. https://t.co/xfH6KKGws7
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 13, 2020
Suuuure. Take our scientists for granted. It's not like there was a volcanic eruption or a pandemic or anything… 🙄https://t.co/9te9BJh6Zs
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 12, 2020
But that’s the kind of toughness and pedigree you earn when your dad never missed a day in Congress as a congressman and always returned his pork barrel even as a Senator, and a mom who was as much of an entrepreneur and public servant as you are.
She even shared three tips to deal with unreasonable people:
Where did you learn to argue with unreasonable people? How to be you po?
1 – be the eldest daughter of a great lawyer and public servant
2 – ask permission to go out with your friends from 18-30 (when you move out)
3 – deal with tampo from 30+ because you don't ask permission
— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 12, 2020
In closing, we’d like to offer you this tweet—because apparently she has been asked multiple times about forgiving the Marcoses:
People are now asking me, what would it take for you to forgive the Marcos family.
1) Stop stealing from us
2) Acknowledge, apologize, and make reparations (ibalik niyo yung ₱era sa bayan) as other children of dictators have done.https://t.co/Cav8YKDncg— Maoi Arroyo (@MaoiArroyo) September 13, 2020
A reasonable pair of conditions, don’t you think?
