MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – It was apparently an attempt to portray potential Presidential candidate Manny Pacquiao as an ordinary citizen, eating with his hands just like many Filipinos do. But the PR stunt backfired, with netizens making fun of the way he did it — practically sucking his fingers as he gobbled his chicken and rice..

Today, the Boxer-Senator responded to the criticism, saying he was eating a side dish of snails — known in the Filipino dialect as kuhol, suso or bisukol — which requires the eater to suck the meat out of the shell, as can be seen in the controversial photo.

This should end all memes and negative comments against Pacquiao.

All’s well that ends well.