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‘Fafda’: Philippines’ Answer To ‘Covfefe’? Netizens Amused By Accidental Tweet From President’s Office

By Lorenzo Tanos
Published on: 00:29 PST, Aug 18, 2017

Earlier today, a tweet from the Office of the President of the Philippines got social media users buzzing – what is “fafda,” and is it the Philippines’ own version of “covfefe”? Just like U.S. President Donald Trump’s latter tweet, it was all an unfortunate accident. And while it was quickly taken down, many netizens were still able to take screenshots of the post, and offer their own interpretations of it, much like most of the world had a field day with Trump’s “covfefe” tweet from earlier in the year.

The tweet in question, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, was posted 1:07 p.m. Manila time earlier today, and while it was taken down just seven minutes later, that was enough time for social media users to notice, and to make the tweet go viral. Many described “fafda” as the Philippine equivalent of “covfefe,” a nonexistent word accidentally tweeted by Donald Trump in May, en route to viral status mere minutes after it was posted.

As reported previously by the Inquisitr, Trump’s “despite the constant negative press covfefe” tweet may have likely been a typographical error, where the U.S. President had actually meant to say “press coverage.” Still, many Twitter users had their own humorous interpretations of “covfefe,” including suggestions that he might have meant to say “coffee,” and references to the famous line “hakuna matata” from the film The Lion King.

Some two and a half months later, the reaction in the Philippines was very similar following the “fafda” tweet, as Filipinos didn’t just compare it to Trump’s “covfefe” gaffe, but also reacted with humor to a seemingly gibberish tweet from no less than President Rodrigo Duterte’s office. As documented by Rappler, several Filipino netizens took to Twitter to use “fafda” as a pun, using it to replace soundalike, actual words from song lyrics and titles, such as Madonna’s 1986 mega-hit “Papa Don’t Preach,” and rap legends N.W.A.’s controversial 1988 song “F**k tha Police.”

Other Twitter users took a darkly humorous route while trying to make sense of “fafda,” including one who made reference to how the Duterte administration has frequently been accused of orchestrating the extra-judicial killings of drug users and pushers. According to this user, “fafda” stands for “Frightening Amount of Filipinos Dead Already.”

But what is “fafda,” really, if not “covfefe” in Filipino? As pointed out by some Twitter users in the aftermath of today’s faux pas, fafda is a type of Indian food, specifically a key part of Gujarati cuisine. India.com offers the following description of the snack, which is typically found in street food stalls in the city of Gujarat.

“Fafda is made up of chipea flour that is kneaded into a dough with various spices and then long strips of it are deep fried and served with whole green chilies.”

With “fafda” trending among Filipino Twitter users much like “covfefe” did around the world toward the end of May, Presidential Communications Operations Office head Martin Andanar issued a statement explaining the tweet, and confirming that he had cautioned his employees to be more careful with their social media posts in the future.

“It was an accidental tweet made by Angel Abella, one of our Twitter admins,” Andanar wrote.

“It doesn’t mean anything, so she deleted it right away. I immediately wrote a memo to all of our social media admins to be more careful.”

[Featured Image by 1000 Words/Shutterstock]

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