MANILA – The Development Bank of Singapore Ltd (DBS Bank), the multinational banking and financial services corporation founded by the government of Singapore and headquartered in Marina Bay, during the past couple of days has been replying to a flurry of online inquiries about the possibility of closing a DBS account through online means.

The quick-and-dirty but short-and-sweet response, has been a polite but firm No.

The account holder has to do this personally at the home branch of the account or through the material submission of a closure authorization form, according to the bank’s help desk.

Twitter space has lately been abuzz with this question in the wake of President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim Friday, September 29, that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV terminated his account with DBS Alexandria “online” at past 10 p.m. on September 8, days before he flew to Singapore with reporters on September 19 and was told by a teller that account 178000296012 did not exist.

Trillanes, meanwhile, labeled the latest accusation as another of the president’s “inventions” and vowed to sign bank waivers this coming Monday to allow the probe into his alleged offshore accounts. (With additional reportage from The Philippine Star)

Here, below, is a sampler of the exchange of tweets regarding the matter, which speak definitively for themselves: