Who is CJ Hirro?
Camille Jensen “CJ” Hirro is a Filipino journalist, television host, beauty queen, and media personality.
Born in Lubao, Pampanga, she is a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she earned a degree in AB Communication Arts cum laude.
She won the Miss Global Philippines 2016 title and was the first runner-up at the Miss Global 2016 international pageant. She is the lead anchor of the Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) and formerly served as anchor of Mata ng Agila International on Net 25, a courtside reporter for ABS-CBN Sports, and a main host of the programme Happy Time.
She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) and serves as a volunteer firefighter one of a very small number of women in the Philippines to hold that role alongside a career in mainstream media.
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Camille Jensen Hirro: History · Bio · Photo
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| Wiki Facts & About Data | |
| Full Name: | Camille Jensen Hirro |
| Birthplace: | Lubao, Pampanga, Philippines |
| Nationality: | Filipino |
| Occupation: | Journalist · News Anchor · TV Host · Former Beauty Queen · Ghost Writer · Filmmaker · Model · Volunteer Firefighter |
| Height: | 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) |
| Religion: | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS / Mormon) |
Early Life
Camille Jensen Hirro was born and raised in Lubao, Pampanga a municipality in the heart of Central Luzon known for its vibrant culture, rich history, and Kapampangan heritage.
She is the youngest in a family of eight children, growing up in what she has described as a large, loving household where family was the central value.
Her parents raised their children with a deep emphasis on respect for others, love for family, and academic excellence values that all the Hirro children absorbed and carried into their adult lives.
The family lived in a middle-class household that occasionally experienced financial strain, given the size of the brood. Rather than succumb to that pressure, the Hirro children responded to it with remarkable academic drive.
Their mother, CJ has noted, made learning fun creating an environment where education was not a burden but a joyful pursuit. All the siblings helped each other with their schoolwork, and the household became one of mutual academic mentorship.
As a result, being an honour student was the norm in the Hirro family a necessity driven not only by intellectual ambition but also by the practical financial reality that scholarships and tuition discounts were essential to keeping all eight children in school.
CJ had a particularly keen intellect and a gift for language that manifested early. She grew up in a household where stories, ideas, and words were currency, and where her mother’s approach to education shaped in her a love of reading and writing that would eventually define her professional life.
Her Kapampangan roots and the warm, expressive culture of Central Luzon gave her both the personal warmth and the fearlessness of expression that would later characterise her journalism.
Her spiritual life has also been a significant formative influence. CJ is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) known colloquially as the Mormon church and her faith has been a guiding thread through some of the most difficult chapters of her life, including her experience as a survivor of sexual assault.
In a powerful and publicly shared account on social media in 2018, she revealed that she had survived rape and used that experience to shed light on the systemic sexual harassment and exploitation she observed in the Philippine pageant industry.
Education
CJ Hirro pursued her higher education at one of the most prestigious universities in the Philippines and in Asia: the University of the Philippines Diliman, in Quezon City. She enrolled in the College of Mass Communication, where she pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts.
The University of the Philippines system is the national university of the Philippines, renowned for producing some of the country’s most distinguished journalists, writers, artists, and public servants. Its Diliman campus the flagship has long been a crucible of critical thinking, political awareness, and intellectual independence.
CJ distinguished herself academically, graduating cum laude one of the highest honours conferred on Philippine university graduates, awarded to students who maintain a grade point average of 1.75 or above on a 1.0 to 5.0 scale throughout their undergraduate course.
The cum laude distinction was a reflection of both her intellectual rigour and her disciplined approach to academic work even as she balanced a growing portfolio of extracurricular activities, creative projects, and early professional engagements.
Her education at UP Diliman did more than give her a degree: it gave her a framework for understanding the relationship between media, power, and public accountability a framework she would spend the next decade applying with increasing sophistication in her work as a broadcast journalist and investigative anchor.
It also provided her with the writing skills and analytical tools that would make her one of the most sought-after ghost writers among Philippine politicians and columnists.
She has also spoken publicly about the influence of a spiritual text on her intellectual and personal development: in 1989, a copy of The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda was given to the young Hirro family by a friend of her father a gift that sparked in her a lifelong interest in spirituality, purpose, and the inner life alongside her external professional pursuits.
Career
Early Career: Ghost Writing, Modelling, and Acting
After graduating cum laude from UP Diliman, CJ Hirro’s career began in several directions simultaneously reflecting the breadth of her talents and interests. She worked as a ramp and commercial model, appearing in print campaigns and commercials.
She made cameo appearances on television including on TV5’s Trenderas and ABS-CBN’s Dream Dad and was featured in Net 25’s EZ Shop Taumbahay.
She also pursued creative work behind the camera: she co-directed the short horror film Kulob, which was selected as one of the ten finalists in the 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards organised by Fully Booked in 2010.
Alongside her media and creative work, CJ made a mark in the Philippines’ highly competitive literary and political world as a ghost writer.
She wrote columns, speeches, and other materials for politicians and columnists work that placed her at the heart of Philippine political communication and gave her an insider’s understanding of how language is deployed in public life.
After completing this chapter of her career, she spent a period abroad as a Flight Steward for Saudia Saudi Arabia Airlines gaining international experience and expanding her worldview before returning to the Philippines to pursue her writing and media career with renewed focus.
Upon returning, she worked directly as a writer for a Philippine senator one of the country’s highest-ranking legislative positions contributing to the office’s research, communication, and legislative documentation work. This role placed her at the centre of national policymaking and gave her an invaluable understanding of how power operates at the highest levels of Philippine government.
Pageantry: Miss Global Philippines 2016 and International Runner-Up
Two years after her Binibining Pilipinas screening during which she was a candidate in the 2014 Bb. Pilipinas competition CJ Hirro entered the Miss Global Philippines 2016 pageant, competing against 22 other contestants.
At 28 years old and standing at 5 feet 5 inches a relatively modest height by pageant standards she made an immediate impression with her intelligence, confidence, and eloquence.
At the final question of the interview portion, she was asked: “What can men learn from beauty pageants?” Her answer was memorable, direct, and warmly received: “It’s hard to be a woman. We have to work hard and prove to men that we can do more. We have to work hard to do things and prove to them that we just don’t have a sexy face and a sexy body but a sexy mind and a sexy heart.”
She won the Miss Global Philippines 2016 crown, becoming notable as the first short-haired Filipina to win a major beauty title a distinction that generated significant media coverage and made her an immediate symbol of a more confident, non-conformist approach to pageantry. She also holds the distinction of being a Mormon pageant winner a relatively rare combination that attracted international attention from LDS media.
CJ subsequently represented the Philippines at the Miss Global 2016 international pageant, where she was named First Runner-Up to the reigning Miss Global an outstanding result that confirmed her standing as one of the most impressive pageant competitors of her generation. Earlier in her pageant career, she had also been second runner-up in the 2009 Mutya ng Kapampangan beauty pageant.
Following her Miss Global reign, CJ used her platform boldly and authentically. In November 2018, she publicly revealed through Instagram that she is a survivor of rape and spoke out about what she described as the culture of sexual harassment within the Philippine pageant industry.
She detailed a disturbing incident during what had been presented as an office blessing event, which turned out to be a private party where she and three other women found themselves in a room with approximately thirty drunk men.
She also described knowing other pageant winners who had been sent to a wealthy sponsor’s home and told that “whoever’s the friendliest gets an LV bag.” Her courageous disclosure was widely praised and contributed to the national conversation about sexual harassment, exploitation, and institutional complicity in the entertainment and pageant industries.
Broadcast Journalism: ABS-CBN, Net 25, and Mata ng Agila International
CJ’s transition from pageantry and ghost writing into broadcast journalism was a natural expression of her communication gifts and her growing desire to use her platform for public accountability.
She joined ABS-CBN Sports as a courtside reporter, covering the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) a prominent domestic basketball league founded by Senator Manny Pacquiao. She also served as one of the main hosts of Happy Time, a popular entertainment programme on ABS-CBN.
Her most prominent broadcast role before PGMN came when she was appointed as anchor of the Mata ng Agila International the English-language international news edition of Mata ng Agila on Net 25, the television network of the Eagle Broadcasting Corporation.
The programme premiered its international edition on April 4, 2022, with CJ Hirro and co-anchor Nina Ricci Alagao-Flores as its founding anchors. The show made history as the only English-language Philippine newscast to retain a Tagalog title, until it transitioned to a Tagalog format in April 2024.
During her time at Net 25, CJ established herself as a serious, credible broadcast journalist with a sharp eye for political accountability and a natural on-camera authority.
Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN): Lead Anchor and Investigative Journalist (2024–present)
The chapter of CJ Hirro’s career that has made the biggest national impact is her work as the lead anchor of the Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN). PGMN is an independent digital media platform that describes itself as “the only Philippine media channel in pursuit of free speech absolutism” welcoming contributors of all political affiliations, from conservatives to progressives, with a promise never to censor content. The network was co-founded by Franco Mabanta, with CJ Hirro alongside fellow anchors James Deakin and Raffy Zamora as its founding roster of on-air talent.
PGMN quickly built an enormous audience through its YouTube channel, Facebook page, and other social media platforms, covering Philippine politics with the kind of blunt, unfiltered editorial voice that resonated with audiences frustrated with perceived bias or timidity in mainstream media.
CJ Hirro’s episodes in particular became must-watch content, characterised by sharp documentary evidence, rigorous comparison of public statements against official records, and a combative but fact-based confrontational style that politicians found impossible to dismiss and difficult to counter.
PGMN’s Facebook page has accumulated over 662,000 likes and 840,000 people talking about it, while its Instagram account has attracted over 142,000 followers. CJ Hirro’s personal social media accounts have also grown substantially as her PGMN profile has risen.
Reflecting her commitment to the platform and her understanding of the importance of principled journalism, CJ has reportedly passed up more prestigious and better-compensated hosting opportunities to remain at PGMN a sacrifice that her network publicly acknowledged and celebrated, describing her as having “sacrificed a dream hosting gig to support” PGMN’s mission.
The Carlos L. Albert High School Exposé: Investigative Reporting at Its Finest (2025)
The most consequential and nationally recognised investigative story of CJ Hirro’s career at PGMN centred on a ₱71-million multipurpose building project at Carlos L. Albert High School in Quezon City.
The project, sponsored by then-Quezon City 4th District Representative Marvin Rillo and implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), had been launched in March 2023 but by the time CJ Hirro’s investigation was broadcast in April 2025, only the concrete foundation and steel posts had been completed, with the rest of the building structure entirely absent.
CJ Hirro’s investigation was methodologically rigorous. She obtained and reviewed the official bidding documents from PhilGEPS (the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System), the DPWH project billboard, the Bill of Quantities, and other official procurement records.
She found that the bidding documents listed materials including ceiling reinforcements, windows, doors, and tiles that are standard components of a completed building, not merely a foundation. Neither the bidding documents nor the project billboard made any reference to the project being divided into multiple phases which Rillo and the DPWH subsequently claimed in their defence.
She noted that procurement rules require such phase-by-phase plans to be explicitly stated in the special conditions of bidding documents to ensure funding continuity across administrations.
She also highlighted a separate project: a ₱43.88-million multipurpose building in Barangay UP Campus, Diliman, which had been launched in February 2023 with a completion deadline of December 2023 but showed only a 1.79% completion rate despite Rillo having led its groundbreaking ceremony and publicly announced it as a completed project on social media.
CJ further raised questions about Rillo’s luxury watch collection publicly visible in his own photographs estimated by netizens at a combined value of over ₱29 million, including a Patek Philippe Nautilus valued at ₱7.3 million and a Richard Mille at ₱7.2 million.
PGMN’s investigative episodes on the Rillo projects garnered over 30 million collective views across its platforms, becoming some of the most-watched pieces of investigative journalism in the history of Philippine digital media. The story directly contributed to Rillo’s narrow electoral defeat in the May 2025 midterm elections, where he lost to Bong Suntay by approximately 0.1% of votes.
PGMN and the DPWH Flood Control Investigation (2025–2026)
Beyond the Rillo exposé, CJ Hirro and PGMN have been at the forefront of broader coverage of alleged corruption in DPWH infrastructure contracts a national story involving billions of pesos in flood control projects, the so-called “Cabral Files,” and investigations by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
PGMN’s reporting has intersected with and amplified the work of Batangas Congressman Leandro Leviste’s anti-corruption campaign, providing a media platform through which the corruption allegations against multiple sitting and former politicians have reached millions of Filipino viewers.
Volunteer Firefighting
One of the most distinctive and least widely known aspects of CJ Hirro’s public life is her service as a volunteer firefighter a role she has maintained alongside her full-time career in journalism and broadcasting.
She is one of a very small number of Filipino women working in mainstream media who simultaneously serve in this capacity, demonstrating the kind of hands-on, community-embedded commitment to public service that defines her broader personal ethos.
She has mentioned her firefighting service in public forums as an expression of the same values that drive her journalism: a sense of responsibility to her community and a willingness to run toward danger rather than away from it when people need help.
Controversies
The Marvin Rillo Cyberlibel Cases (2025–2026)
The most significant legal challenge of CJ Hirro’s career to date stems directly from her investigative reporting on former QC 4th District Representative Marvin Rillo. Following PGMN’s explosive exposés on the Carlos L. Albert High School project and related infrastructure spending, Rillo’s legal team initially hinted at legal action in April 2025.
On October 16, 2025, Rillo formally filed multiple cyberlibel cases against both CJ Hirro and PGMN months after his narrow electoral defeat, which he attributed in part to the negative publicity generated by PGMN’s reporting.
The lawsuit specifically cited, among other issues, PGMN’s mention of Rillo’s luxury watch collection as an alleged intrusion into his private life. CJ Hirro responded publicly with characteristic directness: she pointed out that she had never listed specific watches or their prices in her reporting the compilation of his watch collection was done independently by netizens based on Rillo’s own publicly posted photographs.
She further noted the irony of Rillo invoking Republic Act No. 6713 which mandates that public officials “lead modest lives appropriate to their positions and income” to object to public scrutiny of his visible wealth.
In her response to the lawsuit, Hirro was unequivocal: she characterised the filing as a “desperate, cowardly attempt to intimidate and silence someone who is doing her job her civic duty of protecting the interests of her countrymen.”
She challenged Rillo to a live, unedited, no-censorship debate at PGMN headquarters, declaring: “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to be afraid of.” Rillo declined the debate.
The cases remained active as of May 2026. In the same month, Rillo following the arrest of PGMN founder Franco Mabanta on extortion charges related to a separate matter reiterated his intention to pursue the cyberlibel cases against Hirro, contending that the Mabanta arrest validated his characterisation of PGMN as a media outlet that engaged in extortion.
Hirro and PGMN denied any complicity in Mabanta’s alleged actions, and Hirro’s legal team continued to prepare her defence. The cases are widely regarded in the Philippine media community as a significant press freedom issue involving the use of cyberlibel law to intimidate a journalist who had exposed alleged government corruption.
The broader context lent CJ Hirro’s situation additional credibility: the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) had by then officially named Marvin Rillo in its ongoing probe into corruption involving multi-billion-peso flood control projects, and he had been placed under an immigration lookout bulletin order (ILBO) to prevent him from leaving the Philippines while investigations proceeded.
The Franco Mabanta Arrest and PGMN’s Reputation (May 2026)
In May 2026, PGMN founder Franco Mabanta was arrested by the NBI on charges of alleged extortion against House Speaker Romualdez. The arrest generated significant controversy around PGMN as an institution, with critics questioning whether the network’s editorial positions had been influenced by political and financial considerations. CJ Hirro distanced herself publicly from any alleged impropriety by Mabanta, maintaining that her own reporting was conducted independently and according to journalistic standards. The episode underscored the complex and sometimes fraught relationship between independent media personalities and the institutional structures within which they work.
Awards and Recognition
- 2nd Runner-Up, Mutya ng Kapampangan (2009)
- Finalist, Bb. Pilipinas (2014) National beauty pageant, Philippines
- Miss Global Philippines 2016 Winner; first short-haired Filipina to win a major national beauty title
- Miss Global 2016 First Runner-Up International beauty pageant
- Graduated Cum Laude AB Communication Arts, University of the Philippines Diliman
- Co-Director, Kulob One of 10 finalists, 3rd Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards, Fully Booked (2010)
- Featured by Inquirer, GMA News, PhilStar, and other major Philippine outlets For investigative reporting on DPWH infrastructure corruption (2025)
- 30+ Million Views Combined viewership of PGMN investigative episodes on Marvin Rillo corruption case (2025)
Social Media
CJ Hirro is one of the most active and engaged journalists on Philippine social media, using multiple platforms to release investigative content, respond to critics, share her commentary on national affairs, and connect with her growing audience.
- Instagram: @cjsuperhirro Her personal Instagram account, where she shares professional updates, personal reflections, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of her work. It was on this platform that she published her landmark 2018 disclosure about surviving rape and exposing sexual harassment in the Philippine pageant industry. Her posts frequently attract significant engagement and media coverage.
- Twitter / X: @cjsuperhirro Her X (formerly Twitter) account, where she engages in real-time political commentary, responds to critics and politicians, and shares PGMN content. It is one of her most active platforms for direct audience engagement.
- YouTube (via PGMN): Her investigative episodes and commentaries are available on the PGMN YouTube channel, which has become one of the most-watched independent political media channels in the Philippines, with individual episodes regularly accumulating millions of views.
- Facebook (via PGMN): PGMN’s Facebook page (Peanut Gallery Media) has over 662,000 likes and regularly generates hundreds of thousands of interactions, with CJ Hirro’s episodes among the most widely shared content on the page.
Personal Life
CJ Hirro grew up as the youngest of eight siblings in Lubao, Pampanga, in a middle-class household where family values and academic excellence were the central pillars of daily life.
She has spoken warmly and publicly about her family, describing her parents as having instilled in all their children an ethos of hard work, mutual support, and dignity values she credits with grounding her through the inevitable challenges of a career in the volatile worlds of entertainment, politics, and investigative journalism.
Her faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) has been a defining element of her personal identity.
In 1989, a spiritual text gifted to her family The Autobiography of a Yogi awakened in her a lifelong spiritual quest, and her eventual conversion to or continuing practice within the LDS faith gave her a moral framework that she has cited as a source of personal strength throughout her life.
Her most significant and publicly disclosed personal experience is her survival of sexual assault. She revealed this in 2018 through a candid Instagram post, using her platform not merely to disclose a private trauma but to shed light on the systemic conditions particularly within the Philippine pageant industry that create environments where such assaults occur and go unreported.
Her disclosure was met with widespread support and sparked public debate about sexual harassment, institutional complicity, and the particular vulnerabilities faced by women in entertainment.
She also serves as a volunteer firefighter one of a small number of Filipino women to combine this form of community service with a full-time media career. It is a commitment that reflects her fundamentally service-oriented personal philosophy and her belief that having a public platform carries obligations that extend beyond the broadcast studio.
CJ Hirro has not publicly disclosed details of any current or past romantic relationships. She has maintained a private personal life in those respects, keeping the focus of her public persona on her professional work and advocacy.
Net Worth
CJ Hirro’s net worth is not publicly disclosed. As a journalist, anchor, and digital media personality, her income is derived from her work at PGMN and from previous roles at Net 25 and ABS-CBN.
Her earlier income streams included work as a ghost writer and political speechwriter relatively well-compensated work in Philippine media and political circles as well as modelling, commercial work, and pageant-related appearances following her Miss Global Philippines 2016 victory.
Her decision, reportedly, to forgo more lucrative mainstream hosting opportunities to remain at PGMN suggests that financial remuneration is not her primary career driver.
Her net worth is generally understood to be modest relative to her public profile, reflecting the reality that independent digital journalism in the Philippines, while influential, is rarely as financially rewarding as positions at major broadcast networks.
FAQs
Who is CJ Hirro?
CJ Hirro, whose full name is Camille Jensen Hirro, is a Filipino journalist, news anchor, beauty queen, ghost writer, filmmaker, model, and volunteer firefighter. She is the lead anchor of the Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) and a former anchor of Mata ng Agila International on Net 25. She is also Miss Global Philippines 2016 and Miss Global 2016 First Runner-Up.
Where is CJ Hirro from?
She is from Lubao, Pampanga, in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines.
Where did CJ Hirro study?
She graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts.
What is CJ Hirro’s religion?
She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as the Mormon church. She is widely noted as one of the few Filipino beauty queens of the LDS faith.
What beauty pageant did CJ Hirro win?
She won the Miss Global Philippines 2016 title, competing against 22 other contestants. She subsequently represented the Philippines at the Miss Global 2016 international pageant, where she was named First Runner-Up. She was also 2nd runner-up in the 2009 Mutya ng Kapampangan and a candidate in the 2014 Bb. Pilipinas pageant.
What is PGMN and what is CJ Hirro’s role?
Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) is a Philippine independent digital media platform that describes itself as committed to free speech absolutism welcoming all political perspectives. CJ Hirro serves as its lead anchor, producing investigative reports and political commentary that have attracted tens of millions of views across PGMN’s social media platforms.
What is the Marvin Rillo cyberlibel case?
Former Quezon City 4th District Representative Marvin Rillo filed multiple cyberlibel cases against CJ Hirro and PGMN in October 2025, following PGMN’s investigative reports on alleged irregularities in Rillo’s ₱71-million Carlos L. Albert High School multipurpose building project. Hirro has characterised the cases as an attempt to silence accountable journalism, and has challenged Rillo to a live public debate. The cases remain active as of May 2026. Rillo has since been named in an infrastructure corruption probe by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.
Is CJ Hirro a volunteer firefighter?
Yes. Alongside her media career, CJ Hirro serves as a volunteer firefighter one of a very small number of Filipino women working in mainstream media to hold this role. It reflects her commitment to community service and public safety beyond the broadcast studio.
Did CJ Hirro speak out about sexual harassment?
Yes. In November 2018, she publicly revealed on Instagram that she is a survivor of rape and shared her firsthand experience of sexual harassment within the Philippine pageant industry. She described being present at an event with approximately thirty drunk men, and spoke about other pageant winners who had been subjected to degrading and coercive behaviour by sponsors. Her disclosure was widely praised and contributed to the national conversation on sexual harassment and institutional accountability in entertainment.
What is CJ Hirro’s height?
She stands at 5 feet 5 inches (approximately 1.65 metres).
Conclusion
CJ Hirro’s life is a story that defies easy categorisation. She is simultaneously a beauty queen who graduated cum laude from the Philippines’ most prestigious university, a rape survivor who chose to speak publicly about her experience to protect others, a ghost writer who helped powerful politicians find their voice, a Mormon in the notoriously secular and often shallow world of Filipino showbusiness, a volunteer firefighter in an industry that mostly just watches fires burn, and an investigative journalist who has exposed alleged corruption by sitting politicians with such precision and persistence that powerful men have resorted to cyberlibel charges in an attempt to silence her.
She represents, in many ways, the best version of what independent digital journalism can be: evidence-based, fearless, community-rooted, and stubbornly indifferent to the threats of those whose interests it threatens.
In a media landscape still dominated by the interests of political dynasties and corporate conglomerates, CJ Hirro has carved out a space where accountability is not negotiable and where the job of journalism to inform the public and hold power to account is taken seriously regardless of consequence.
As she faces active cyberlibel charges, navigates the institutional turbulence following the arrest of PGMN’s founder, and continues to produce investigative content that reaches tens of millions of Filipinos, one thing is clear: CJ Hirro’s most important chapter is still being written and the Philippine public will be watching closely.
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