Tupas admits meeting PSBank branch manager when he was 15

Chief prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

After some hemming and hawing, Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr. on Wednesday finally confirmed he and a Philippine Savings Bank branch manager, Anabelle Tiongson, had met before.

In a phone interview over Radyo Inquirer prompted by a photograph that appeared in the social network Facebook on Monday, Tupas confirmed he and Tiongson met at a wedding held 25 years ago.

In the picture, a man wearing a barong Tagalog—identified as Tupas—and a woman in an off-shoulder gown— supposedly Tiongson—are shown flanking a young, newlywed couple.

Asked if he had seen the picture, Tupas said in Filipino: “It was shown to me yesterday, so I remembered.  I was 15, that was 25 years ago.”

He maintained, however, he did not know that Tiongson was the same woman who was in the photo with him as part of a wedding entourage.

“You don’t really get to know the other people in such occasions,” he said.

The head of the prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, Tupas was grilled by Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada over the alleged closeness of the Tupas and Tiongson families of Iloilo.

At the trial, Tupas denied having met, or having been introduced to Tiongson before. The latter also said she only got to know of Tupas through the media.

Tiongson appeared before the Senate impeachment court to testify on Corona’s bank accounts at the PSBank branch on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.

The accounts were the subject of a subpoena served by the prosecution based on supposed copies of Corona’s bank accounts.  Representative Rey Umali, a member of the prosecution panel, said the documents were given to him by a “small lady.”

The provenance of the Corona bank records got even more complicated after Tiongson said Quezon City Representative Jorge “Bolet” Banal had visited her office to inquire about the veracity of the documents on Corona’s bank records.