'Friend' stabs TV director 17 times

MANILA, Philippines - A television director was stabbed 17 times before dawn yesterday, reportedly by a male friend he met on a social networking site and brought to his house in Quezon City.

Ricardo “Ricky” Rivero, 39, who is also an actor and once appeared on the youth-oriented show “That’s Entertainment,” managed to drive himself to the V. Luna Medical Center, said Superintendent Crisostomo Mendoza, commander of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 10.

Rivero claimed he was stabbed by Hans Ivan Ruiz, 22, who was at his house in Barangay Pinyahan late Sunday night until yesterday morning. The suspect also allegedly attempted to steal items from the director’s house.

In an interview, Mendoza said the victim woke up at past 3 a.m. and found Ruiz allegedly stealing his belongings, which led to the stabbing.

Rivero told police he managed to get out of bed and run into the bathroom. Mendoza said the two men struggled in the bathroom until Rivero was able to run out and ask for help.

The police official said the suspect was still carrying a backpack containing the victim’s laptop, two cellular phones and a pair of shoes at Rivero’s house when the police arrived there.

Rivero remains confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center, where he was transferred, according to Mendoza.

Ruiz told The STAR he disposed of a bread knife, reportedly used in the attack on Rivero. Police later found the knife behind a fire truck in the barangay hall.

Ruiz: Someone else stabbed Rivero

Ruiz, who is detained at the QCPD Station 10, had a different version of the incident. He claimed Rivero had asked him for sex several times, but he had repeatedly declined, saying he is already living with a girlfriend and they are expecting a child.

Ruiz said Rivero befriended him through the social networking site Facebook early this year. Contrary to other reports, Ruiz said he did not have any sexual relations with the director, whom he referred to as just a friend. He said he felt indebted to the director after the latter lent him money to pay his graduation fee last April.

He said Rivero contacted him and asked to meet him Sunday night. Ruiz said Rivero fetched him and brought him to his house. The suspect claimed Rivero asked him to have sex that night, but he declined.

Ruiz claimed he was awakened by Rivero’s shouts, asking the suspect to stop stabbing him. He said he did not see who stabbed Rivero since the house was dimly lit at the time.

“I told him I was not stabbing him,” Ruiz said in Tagalog, claiming he even helped the victim clean his wounds in the bathroom. “I even offered to bring him to the hospital.”

Ruiz said when they went down the stairs, the director told him to gather his things for him and bring them to the hospital.

Ruiz said he works as a “zone specialist,” or someone who checks for possible illegal connections, for a water utility firm. According to him, he was even the one who hailed the police car when he heard the siren and led police officers to the crime scene.