Mom of ‘paparazzo’ teen asks Ellen Adarna for public apology

What started out as a simple Instagram (IG) story of their food and restaurant venture may take a legal turn when the mother of the girl, centered in Ellen Adarna’s viral ‘paparazzo’ Instagram story demanded a public apology from the actress.

Through a post on her personal Facebook account, Myra A. Santos, the mother of Eleila, 17 years old, called on the actress on hiatus.

“We are reaching out to you to let you know how deeply hurt we are by the unneeded stress and unwanted attention you caused after you uploaded a photo and video of her on Instagram, without any consent from us,” Myra wrote on May 7, Monday.

According to the teen’s mom, Eleila tried to settle the matter privately but the actress did not reply.

“We initially took it lightly, thinking things would be resolved quickly and the 30-year old you would give the two minors the benefit of the doubt. Even her aunt wrote a private message to you and mentioned she is a minor. However, we did not hear anything from you,” Myra continued.

“Instead, you posted a one-sided narrative and insisted on erroneous and unfounded accusations again on Instagram. You have claimed my daughter is guilty, rude, and has been repeatedly insinuating my daughter is lying,” she added.

Myra said that after Ellen’s moves on social media, they were convinced that she did not want an explanation, and just wanted “to defame their daughter publicly.”

Saying that she is proud of how Eleila stood up for herself, it was now her turn to protect her as a mother.

“My family and I have begun seeking legal assistance. As advised by our lawyer, we are now writing this letter. As her family, we ask you to publicly apologize to Eleila. We prefer not to take this further, but as our only daughter, we are ready to take this wherever needed to protect her integrity,” Myra wrote.

Based on her post, Ellen has five days to reply to the letter according to the Santos family’s lawyer.

“Should you fail or refuse to do so, we will not hesitate to take the appropriate legal actions necessary under the circumstances, to protect and uphold the best interest and welfare of our 17-year-old, Eleila A. Santos,” Myra ended her letter.

Ellen on May 4 posted a story showing a photo of Eleila who was holding her phone towards the actress’ direction. She captioned it with “When you PAP us, we PAP you. It’s a tie. #PAParaziMoves.”

“Oo ‘yan ha (Yes, there)…you know the feeling… uncomfy noh (it is uncomfortable right?) When you PAP us, we PAP you too,” Ellen wrote on a clip of the seemingly uncomfortable Eleila.

The young girl, however, also used social media to defend herself. On Twitter, Eleila gave her side of the story.

According to her, she and her companion were casually eating ramen in the restaurant, and she only wanted to upload a story of the food and the restaurant where they are eating.

Uploading the clip she took on her phone, she further tweeted that it is wrong to assume things.

However, despite airing her side, Ellen did not stop and insisted that she really was a paparazzo, through another series of Instagram series.

“Girl, you can deny all you want, but before your food arrived, you knew what you guys were doing. So whatever, feeling na kung feeling but hindi kami tanga (we may be assuming, but we are not stupid),” Ellen wrote.

The actress went on by saying that the girl should have focused on her food if she really was filming only the food, not the people in the background.

“Girl, you can stop acting like a victim and know that there’s two sides of a story, and people will always choose a side. So deal with your bashers, ‘cos me, I can handle them pretty well, and you know, good luck to you,” Ellen said, also calling Elbert Cuenca, the restaurant owner to release CCTV footages of the encounter.

According to Ellen, Eleila was panicking, then saying, “So you can justify what you want to justify, and I can do what I want also because I am patol like that.”

Eleila also replied to Ellen’s follow-ups.

“To reply lang naman to her story, we really had no clue she was there. That’s why I took a vid of not only my food ‘cause I was showing the restaurant as well,” she tweeted, adding that she did not even see the actress taking her video.

“If I knew I was at a fault I would admit it pero ‘yun nga (but), I really had no clue na nasama pa pala siya sa (that she was included in my) story ko, if my story was inappropriate for her, she could’ve confronted me in the restaurant,” she added.