My reply to Forum member Justine Aragones's question:
In Sentence 1, "Panelo initially downplayed the ban, saying Malacañang is not bothered by it," the phrase "saying Malacañang is not bothered by it" is not a noun phrase but a participial phrase modifying the subject "Panelo." By definition, a noun phrase is "a word or group of words that functions in a sentence as subject, object, or prepositional object," while a participial phrase is "a verb form--either a present participle or a past participle," that functions as an adjective by modifying nouns and pronouns. The participial phrase "saying Malacañang is not bothered by it" is, of course, the present participle "saying" plus its modifying phrase "Malacañang is not bothered by it."
Sentence 2, "Trying out new things for himself, Waqi started painting in 2017 and is joyfully exploring his hand at art," doesn't contain any misplaced modifier at all and as such is a perfect sentence construction with every grammar element in its proper place. It consists of the compound sentence "Waqi started painting in 2017 and is joyfully exploring his hand at art," with the subject Waqi modified by the participial phrase "trying out new things for himself" as an adjective phrase. Its more common construction is "Waqi, (who is) trying out new things for himself, started painting in 2017 and is joyfully exploring his hand at art."
