Last Tuesday, Funfare did an exclusive interview with Ruffa at The Spa at the Alabang Town Center (Ayala Alabang) where Ruffa sampled the place’s soothing services (foot massage, a dip at the jacuzzi adorned with red and white petals, etc.) for the Easter Special of The Buzz.
Ruffa planed in at 10 o’clock last Saturday evening, catching the last portion of the 2002 Bb. Pilipinas Beauty Pageant which she was supposed to co-host (Charlene Gonzalez took over). She came straight from London where she left her Turkish boyfriend Yilmaz Bektas. Just several days earlier in Istanbul, he entertained Ruffa and her parents, Annabelle Rama and Eddie Gutierrez (who spent his birthday there last Feb. 6), together with two friends from L.A. Ruffa flew with her parents to L.A. and rushed back to London to join Yilmaz until they parted last week.
Before she flies back to London on March 27 for yet another rendezvous with Yilmaz (from London, they’re going to L.A.), Ruffa will be very visible on local TV, with her guestings capped by a co-hosting chore (with Phillip Salvador, Lorna Tolentino and Bong Revilla who was once romantically linked to Ruffa... will something be, uh, rekindled?) at the 20th Film Academy Awards tomorrow night at the UP Theater.
I didn’t have to ask Ruffa if she is happy because very obviously she is, as the glow and sparkle in her face unmistakably showed. During their holiday in Istanbul, Annabelle and Eddie saw for themselves how Yilmaz treated their daughter like a queen, pampering her like a royalty (in a manner of speaking, Ruffa is). Instead of describing in detail the Gutierrezes’ Turkish sojourn, I’m letting the choice photos on this page do the "story-telling." Pictures, after all, speak several thousand words.
The Gutierrezes and the Bektas have become almost one clan, with Annabelle and Eddie treating Yilmaz like their own son and Yilmaz’s parents treating Ruffa the same way. In fact, the Bektas call Ruffa "Dessert" because they found her "sweet." Annabelle and Eddie were billeted for two days at the Ritz Carlton and they later joined Ruffa at her condo where she usually has only a maid as companion.
With his looks, Yilmaz naturally attracts other women as a fly-catcher would flies. But so far, his romance with Ruffa has lasted – is lasting! – the longest (more than two years now, whereas his other romances would last for only a few weeks to three months at the most).
"But it’s true," said Ruffa. "Seloso si Yilmaz. He can’t stand it when other guys look at me; he wants to shield me from other guys. That’s why one time, while we were driving along EDSA during one of his visits here, Yilmaz threw my cellphone into the highway. Sayang ang mahal pa naman n’un – latest model! He saw me texting, so he grabbed the cellphone and threw it out of the car. Grabe!"
It’s Yilmaz’s temper and possessiveness that prompted Annabelle and Eddie to dissuade Ruffa from seriously thinking about settling down, advising Ruffa to enjoy her single-blessedness to the hilt before buckling down to domesticity.
"We do discuss marriage," admitted Ruffa, "but not naman soon. It might happen next year or the year after that, who knows?"
If and when, Ruffa and Yilmaz will have two weddings, as Funfare reported several issues ago, one in London and another one here.
In the meantime, Ruffa just wants to enjoy her romance with Yilmaz, made more interesting by a routine of galit-bati and kissing-up/making-up, with each reconciliation turning everything even sweeter.
"Yilmaz has a way of making it up to me," winked Ruffa, "but I won’t tell you how."