How does Ruffa maintain her figure?

It will be another 18 months of endorsing the Calayan Surgicenter for Ruffa Gutierrez, who is also coming up with her own line of skin products soon.

"The Calayans give me personalized service whenever I go to their clinic in the afternoons to avoid the long line of patients," says Ruffa.

"It’s my first time to endorse something like this," she adds.

The feeling of goodwill is mutual. The Calayan couple, Drs. Manny and Pie, like Ruffa as friend, client and endorser because she is "obedient."

Ruffa doesn’t hide her plan of getting a tummy tuck if and when she gives birth to a planned third baby (after Venice and Lorin by husband Yilmaz Bektas) next year.

"I hope it will be a boy this time," she says.

Ruffa says motherhood is no excuse for neglecting one’s looks. Neither must marriage keep a woman from earning her own keep.

Thus, Ruffa’s upcoming business, to be launched in the Philippines with a branch in Turkey, her homebase, will give her more financial independence.

"I can very well support my children if I have to," she says.

Yilmaz has gotten over his fear about being written about in the papers and is coming over for a visit this year, adds Ruffa. And, contrary to what most people think, men in Turkey can’t just marry more than one woman just because they’re Muslim, she goes on. They have to divorce the first wife first.

And Ruffa feels very secure about her place in Yilmaz’s heart.

"He sends me sweet text messages, now that I’m here in the Philippines," she says.

Ruffa will be visible in billboards all over Metro Manila, in print ads and TV spots because of her newest endorsement. – Maridol Rañoa-Bismark