Ynez after Mon: Happier!

Not twins, after all

First, a clarification:

Ruffa Gutierrez, brand-new Mrs. Yilmaz Bektas, would have delivered fraternal twins (a boy and a girl like those of Carmina Villarroel and Zoren Legaspi, and Aga Muhlach and Charlene Gonzalez) sometime in August, presumably in L.A. where she and Yilmaz plan to settle down, but one of the embryos didn’t develop because she started bleeding during her first month of pregnancy.

"Sayang," said Ruffa during a brief phone chat with Funfare yesterday from Istanbul. "I had a structural ultrasound the other day in Istanbul to determine the size and gender (a girl) of the fetus and that was how I found out."

Fraternal twins are nurtured in two different placentas unlike identical twins which share only one.

Twins are not uncommon in the family of Ruffa who has twin brothers, Richard (of GMA’s Click, among other shows) and Raymond (based in L.A.).

After she gives birth, according to Ruffa, she and Yilmaz will build a mosque in Mindanao and a Catholic church somewhere in Metro Manila as a peace offering.

* * *

Six months after she broke up with Mon Confiado (one of Cory Quirino’s "rapists" in NBI Files: The Cory Quirino Kidnap), Ynez Veneracion is looking very good, claiming that, after having survived a few suicide attempts, she has never been happier.

"It’s wonderful to be alive," she says.

And kicking.

For six months now, Ynez adds, she has been "celibate" (in quotation marks, take note, for want of a more polite word). She hasn’t entertained the thought of going into another serious relationship and, thank heavens, she has no regrets.

Movie offers come one after the other. She has just finished Elwood Perez’s Sshhh..She Walks by Night (recently shown) and Mel Chionglo’s Xerex (showing soon, topbilled by Aubrey Miles), and she’s shooting Deo Fajardo’s Tatlong Tsuper ng Taksi where she co-stars with, yes, Mon Confiado with whom she has a sizzling love scene.

"We were both nude," says Ynez who’s noted (notorious?) for being brutally frank, calling a spade a spade. "Mon used to tease me for being a bold star; siya daw hindi bold actor, serious actor daw siya at hindi naghuhubad. Look what he’s doing now. We’re on the same level now. Hubadera ako, hubadero siya."

How did she, they, feel during the shooting of that love scene?

"I know that Mon got excited," laughs Ynez. "I could feel it. Pero ako hindi. Manhid na yata ako."

Asked if she still felt something for Mon (whose sister was Gardo Versoza’s former girlfriend), Ynez answered in all candor, "Konti na lang. About 30 percent."

She said she knew that Mon has other "loves" (plural) now but she hardly cared.

"But when he learns na may nanliligaw sa akin, I can feel na medyo nagseselos siya."

Promising not to resort to any self-destructive action again, Ynez now lives with her mother, a maid and a driver in a rented house in Filinvest (Antipolo). She and Mon have decided to sell the condo unit they shared for more than four years, but Ynez still has to get her 50 percent share (around P1.5 million). No, she doesn’t have any document to prove co-ownership of the property (registered only in Mon’s name) but Ynez said she’s confident Mon wouldn’t "cheat" her.

"When it comes to money, mabait si Mon. I learned how to handle money from him. When I was short of cash, he would even volunteer to give me some. So I’m sure he would give me my (50 percent) share."

Her dream now (besides buying a house of her own) is to win an acting award, something she got close to realizing three years ago when she got four nominations for her performance in Paraiso ni Efren. Oh, yes, Ynez did get a Best Supporting Actress trophy... from PASADO. But she wants one from a major award-giving body.

Keep it up, Mayor Lito!

I take my hat off to Manila Mayor Lito Atienza. I drive along Jose Abad Santos Avenue (especially at night with those cool, green lights along the island) and see how clean that street has turned out to be.

I take my hat off to Mayor Lito everytime my friends and I take time out to have dinner in one of the restaurants near the Quirino Grandstand at the Rizal Park, which provide a breath-taking view of the Manila Bay (better to go there at night).

I take my hat off to Mayor Lito everytime my friends and I take a snack at one of the food stalls in that "reinvented" seawall portion of Roxas Boulevard fronting the Malate Church, and watch the sunset as we sip iced tea. My New York-based journalist-friend Raoul Tidalgo was highly impressed by that cozy promenade when he was here last Christmas.

No wonder Mayor Lito and Manilans are proud of their city, so proud in fact that he has asked the six producers participating in this June’s Manila Filmfest to shoot some, if not all, of their entries’ scenes in and around Manila.

Keep up the good work, Mayor Lito!