Sen. Win Gatchalian professes love for Bianca Manalo after 'no comment' on viral texts
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin "Win" Gatchalian assured Filipinos his relationship with long-time girlfriend Bianca Manalo is strong, despite the latter being currently embroiled in a viral text scandal involving actor Rob Gomez.
A now-deleted post on Gomez's social media accounts contained screenshots of the actor's allegedly flirtatious exchanges with several women, including Manalo.
The supposed exchange with Manalo contained the latter pertaining to a certain "he" in Valenzuela. Though no names were stated, social media users were quick to deduce that it might pertain to Gatchalian, who previously served as the city's 1st district congressman and mayor.
The conversations also mentioned Miss Multinational Philippines 2021 Shaila Rebortera, with whom Gomez has a child and is the person Gomez alleged leaked the screenshots.
Manalo has since released a statement assuring the public she and Gomez are just friends, and that the screenshots were incomplete and posted without her consent.
After a Senate press briefing on the 2024 national budget and the West Philippine Sea, Gatchalian was asked for his comment on the leaked texts involving Manalo.
"No comment," Gatchalian briefly responded. Gomez is also a relative of Gatchalian's fellow senators, Jinggoy Estrada and JV Ejercito.
A day after the briefing, Gatchalian posted on his personal Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts a photo of the gifts he received from another fellow senator, Sonny Angara, and his wife Tootsy. These were two framed photos of Gatchalian and Manalo together.
"Bianca and I share the same values and principles in life. No fake news will divide us apart," Gatchalian simply wrote in the caption.
Gatchalian also retweeted a post on X by a media outlet about Manalo's previously mentioned statement.
Beauty queen-comedienne Herlene Budol, another woman involved in the leaked messages, also released a statement denouncing the leaking of the messages and is considering filing data privacy, defamation and cyber libel cases.
RELATED: 'Breach of privacy': Bianca Manalo issues statement over alleged affair with Rob Gomez
- Latest
- Trending
Exclusive
