MANILA – Actress Maine Mendoza came to the defense Arjo Atayde against a netizen who said she could not believe she is “tolerating” her boyfriend.
“Ayaw kong maniwala na kaya mong itolerate ang mali, na mas pabor sayo ang ginawa ni Atayde kesa sa safety ng maraming tao. Hindi isang Maine Mendoza yun,” the netizen posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
Responding to the tweet, Mendoza told the netizen that she is not “tolerating” Atayde and “there’s just so much you do not know about the story.”
“And I hope he gets the chance to tell his side and the context of what had happened these past few days,” she said.
“I also hope you do not base your judgments solely on what you see online because you might just be seeing an angle of the real scenario,” Mendoza added.
On Wednesday, Feelmaking Productions Inc. issued an official statement confirming Atayde tested positive for COVID-19 while shooting for his new movie for the production company in Baguio City.
According to the statement, Atayde was “suffering from high fever, headaches, and difficulty in breathing” so it became “the mutual decision of Feelmaking Productions Inc., Arjo’s parents, and doctors to rush the actor, who has a pre-existing medical condition, straight to a hospital in Manila on August 17.”
According to the statement, the Atayde family has already reached out to Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
“We assure him and the people of Baguio that we will comply with our commitments to the city. We are grateful for the opportunity to shoot in their beautiful city and apologize for whatever inconvenience that this unfortunate incident may have caused,” it said.
Earlier that day, Magalong ordered an investigation for possible breach of protocols.
According to the city’s Public Information Office (PIO), “The group was given a permit to stay and conduct its shooting activity since last month with the commitment that they will be staying in a bubble – meaning no one should be going in and out of the city during the duration of the shooting.”
“However, we found out that there were instances where crew members go home and come back to the city without passing through our triage so they are not tested,” Magalong said as quoted in the statement.
Magalong also claimed Atayde’s group failed to comply with their commitment for a monthly testing.
“For some reason, Mr. Atayde left his group yesterday (Monday) without informing us although I’m trying to reach out to him to instruct him on what to do with his group left in the city,” the mayor said.