Arroyo mug shot

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome has released a statement regarding the supposed mug shots of former President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo that appeared on a newspaper and circulated in the internet, recently. Bartolome said the mug shots are "not authentic."

Check out below the press statement of the PNP Chief posted on President Noynoy Aquino's website:

Allow me to clarify the circumstances surrounding the publication of pictures of Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo in a national daily.

Let me state for the record that the published pictures are not the authentic mug shot photos of Rep. Arroyo taken during the mandatory booking procedure last Saturday that were submitted to the RTC Branch 112 of Pasay City on Monday.

I have given specific instructions to the arresting officers and police custodians to ensure that only the Presiding Judge of RTC Branch 112 of Pasay City or his duly designated representative shall have access to the booking sheets, mug shots, and fingerprint cards of Rep. Arroyo.

Let me cite the report of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group that noted several discrepancies in the published photo-most notably the characters stamped on the published images that read: CONG GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO and CRIM CASE # R-PSY-1104432-CR. Whereas, the captions on the authentic mug shots were: GLORIA ARROYO Y MACAPAGAL and CC NR. R-PSY-1104432.

Morever, the CIDG noted discrepancies in the photo’s size and dimensions as well as the format of the captions in the published photos against those of the authentic mugshots.

The supposed mugshots of former President, now Pampanga Representative, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have made their way online.

Rep. Gloria Arroyo Mugshot | Courtesy of Inquirer

Southern Police District (SPD) officer-in-charge Sr. Supt. James Bucayu told ABS-CBN News that they were surprised about the leakage of the mugshots.

“Nakita ko na po ‘yung mug shots galing sa Internet. Nagtataka kami sino nag-leak," Bucayu said.

A deliberation is yet to be done regarding the public release of the pictures. However, the said Gloria Arroyo mugshots have been circulating in various social media sites including in mugshots.com which proclaims itself as “Google for Mug Shots."