Investigations by Sin Ming Daily Paper has identified the couple that was featured in the recent viral video at a Toa Payoh Hawker Centre, as a director and an educator at a local tuition centre.
The reaction from social media was spontaneous and largely condemned the couple shown in the video. The Local Society posted Manny Quest’s video on its Facebook page and it has since been viewed over three million times and shared over 42 thousand times.
On Sunday (23 April), a young lady was wrongly identified as the female featured in the viral video and had her Facebook profile and image splashed on various social media fanpages and websites. The misidentification was eventually clarified.
Subsequently, the police acted upon complaints filed by members of public on the incident and arrested a 46-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman on Tuesday.
According to the Chinese Paper, its investigations confirmed that the 46-year-old male is a director of a tuition centre, Novel Learning Centre, and his 39-year-old wife is a mathematics teacher at the same centre.
According to ACRA records, the tuition centre is solely owned by Alida Trading Pte Ltd. It is noted that Mr Chow Chuin Yee is the only one director listed in the company who is 46-year-old. Mr Chow is also stated to be involved in 11 business entities recorded in ACRA’s system.
The Chinese paper noted that the website’s page on the centre’s teachers has been removed since the viral video was published on social media and widely reported.
However, as the saying goes, the internet never forgets…
From the profile that was previously posted on the site, it matches the profile mentioned by the Chinese Paper of Ms Vernon Tay.
Ms Tay has been teaching primary school mathematics for about 16 years and the majority of her students has achieved A* and A results in 2013 and 2014 PSLE results.
According to a Straits Times report in Dec 2015, Ms Tay is identified as the centre manager for the tuition centre.
One can also cross check the voice of Ms Tay against the lady featured in the video that Straits Times posted in 2015.
When the reporters turned up at the couple’s registered address, a male who appeared at the door denied being the person featured in the viral video and slammed the door after the reporter pursued further with more questions.
A male relative of the female teacher was contacted by the reporters and confirmed that she is indeed the one featured in the video and that the male with her is her husband.
In response to the report, netizens on the Chinese paper’s Facebook page questioned if the behaviour exhibited by the couple, especially Ms Tay is befitting of an educator.
But in any case, the careful identification of the couple by the Chinese paper will put a stop to the blind accusation and belief that UOB is sheltering the individual who was wrongly identified.