MANILA – Global leaders flew into the Philippines this week for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to discuss heavy economic and political issues of the region and beyond. And predictably, such discourse attracted little attention from the masses.
But this year’s summit turned out to be quite popular, with social media stirring the host country’s netizens into an argument of their own: who is the ‘hottie’ of the summit?
A Twitter poll with the hashtag #APEChottie, a face-off between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for the most handsome leader attending the APEC summit, became a trending topic in the Philippine Twitterverse.
The hashtag racked in 45,565 tweets for the last seven days, according to Topsy.com, an online social search and analytics tool. The top tweet came from celebrity Bianca Gonzalez Intal, which garnered 33,222 tweets last Tuesday (November 17).
Most people saw it as a breather, adding a little humor to a week-long summit about global issues (not to mention, the horrendous traffic).
Not surprisingly, there were groups that were critical of the hashtag’s popularity over more pressing issues like climate change or the trash controversy between Canada and the Philippines.
The word is still out who actually won but separate polls like from Gist, a lifestyle and events website owned by the Philippine Star, and Magic 89.9 reveals that the nation is split between Trudeau and Nieto.
However, some insisted to love their own.
