LOOK: This museum visitor looks a lot like Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo's mom
It’s not every day you get to see someone who resembles you; This museum visitor just found that she looks a lot like Belen Ocampo, mom of historian Ambeth Ocampo.
The visitor, named Veronica Balayo shared on TikTok her interesting discovery when she visited the National Museum in the past week.
In the now-viral post, Veronica posed alongside the foto-óleo—an art form that colorizes portraits with oil paint—of Belen Ocampo, showing their uncanny resemblance.
“Visited National Museum and found this photo of a girl, and it kinda looks like...me, now and then?” the video text read.
She added in her caption, “Am I her reincarnation?” The TikTok post has garnered over 500,000 thousand likes and over 5 million views as of writing.
@verniece Replying to @Ming ming TV ♬ You dont know me - ellery
The said post was also re-shared by Ambeth on his Facebook page on Sunday, Jan. 28.
“Trending on Tiktok video this morning was the post of Veronica Balayo, a recent visitor to the National Museum who resembles a photo-oleo of my mother from the 1950's!” he wrote.
In an interview with Pilipino Star Ngayon, Veronica shared that it was actually her first time visiting the museum since she lives in Davao City. She said she initially had no idea who was in the portrait and just decided to take a photo with it because she and her co-workers noticed their resemblance.
"Kumbaga sa dami namang art pieces sa Museum dun pa ako napadpad. I think it was an immediate reaction like very quick realization na parang hawig ko siya and after that I can’t stop looking at our photo," she said.
"I’m even wondering if this is my second life pero I feel so honored that they are calling that it’s like reincarnation because Belen Ocampo is such a fine woman. After reading all the details about her seeing the posts of Mr. Ambeth’s mom I was really fascinated and hoping I would have a bright future and a happy life just like [his] Mom Belen Ocampo,” she added.
Many social media users expressed their awe at their resemblance.
“Hala 😳 Parang copy paste. Maybe reincarnation is true,” one TikTok user commented on her post.
“This may have brought tears to your eyes, Sir Ambeth, seeing your mom in her, alive and in her youth,” a Facebook user commented on Ambeth’s post.