Ruffa, kids get police escorts
By CECILLE SUERTE FELIPE
The Philippine Star
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has assigned three police escorts to actress-beauty queen Ruffa Gutierrez and her two daughters following “grave threats” from her Turkish husband Yilmaz Bektas over their separation.
Chief Superintendent Romeo Hilomen, chief of the PNP Police Security Protection Office (PSPO), said three well-trained, skilled and capable police officers have been detailed to safeguard Gutierrez and her daughters, starting Thursday.
“In granting her request for police security, we assume that he (Bektas) has the money to hire people in the Philippines to carry out the threat (against Gutierrez),” said Hilomen in an interview.
Hilomen said Gutierrez’s request underwent assessment and evaluation before it was approved.
When asked by The STAR why the PNP did not advise Gutierrez to hire private security escorts instead of getting police escorts since they have money, Hilomen said the deployment of police escorts to Gutierrez is only a temporary measure.
“Hiring private security will be for the long term. So the deployment of police escorts to personalities like her will be temporary. Our police officers will assess and know in two or three months whether there is a need for continuous security,” he added.
Gutierrez’s mother, Anabelle Rama, met with Hilomen as she fetched the three policemen from the PSPO headquarters inside Camp Crame in Quezon City yesterday.
Hilomen vouched for the capability of his men to secure Gutierrez and her daughters round the clock. The policemen assigned to Gutierrez and her two daughters carry ranks ranging from SPO1 to SPO3 and have been in the police service for more than 10 years.
“My men are ready to die for them,” Hilomen said in Filipino, speaking of the character of police officers he assigned to Gutierrez and her children.
Hilomen refused to identify the police officers to prevent the “other party” from contacting them and buying their loyalty. He simply described the policemen as the officers who used to secure Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon.
According to Hilomen, Rama personally asked PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon for security for her daughter and granddaughters.
“General Calderon instructed me to look into the request and assess the threat. Considering that Bektas has the money and can pay even P1 million (to make good on his threat),” Hilomen said.
In her letter, which carried a Royale ERA letterhead, Gutierrez, whose real name is Sharmaine Gutierrez, said: “I am writing to bring to your attention the grave threat to my person, as well as my two children, brought about by my husband Yilmaz Bektas, a Turkish national who carries (a) Liberation Diplomat passport.”
“Knowing him, I am afraid for my safety and those of my two children,” Gutierrez wrote. “It is of this reason that I am requesting your good self to furnish me with police security detail for me and my kids.”
Hilomen said the policemen assigned to Gutierrez will conduct their own assessments and come up with recommendations for their continuous assignment.
Rama told Hilomen that the police escorts of Gutierrez and her daughters will be asked to go home after their functions. Hilomen said he cautioned her that the threat will not cease, even at night.
“I told her (Rama) that they can ask my men to go home but they should not blame us if something happens to them while my men are away. She said she would tell it to her daughter,” Hilomen added.
Gutierrez earlier said that she had been receiving death threats from her husband after she told various talk shows that she was tortured by Bektas. She said their worst fight occurred in February when Bektas beat her and locked her up in a closet. She said she escaped to the Philippines with their two daughters and is now finalizing plans to divorce Bektas.
Bektas admitted to slapping Gutierrez but denied torturing her in February. He said he got mad after finding out that she had already been married to a certain Richard Daloia in 1999, four years before their marriage. He denied Gutierrez’s allegation that he had known about her previous marriage since the beginning.
He also accused Gutierrez of kidnapping their children. “My children are United States citizens, not Filipino citizens, not Turkish citizens. I’m going to the United States embassy and also I’m gonna call in the States’ lawyers regarding (the) kidnapping (of) my children. Until this case is finished, I don’t want my children next to Ruffa,” he said in an interview.
On Sunday Gutierrez told ABS-CBN’s “The Buzz” that she divorced Daloia in 2000 but failed to follow up on her petition because she did not have a lawyer. She said she went to Nevada with a lawyer earlier this month to follow up on her divorce petition.