Claudine Barreto keeping her silence, for now

RAYMART and Claudine during happier times with their kids, Sabina and Santino

Controversial actress Claudine Barretto is determined to follow to the letter the gag order issued recently by the Marikina Regional Trial Court.

The 34-year-old actress, who has a pending petition for a temporary protection order (TPO) against her estranged husband, actor Raymart Santiago, 40, has decided to make herself unavailable to entertainment writers.

She refused to grant interviews, or even send a message to her loyal followers.

The Inquirer on Monday afternoon phoned Claudine’s legal counsel, Ferdinand Topacio, to request an interview with the actress. Topacio, who admitted he was with Claudine at that time, told us to wait while he spoke to his client. We overheard Claudine turn down our request, saying she didn’t want to seek support from her fans, for fear that the issue would get blown out of proportion.

Gretchen irked

On Sunday night, actress Gretchen Barretto, Claudine’s estranged sister, reportedly got piqued when entertainment writers asked her to comment on the issue during the 9th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival awards ceremony in Pasay City.

According to Gretchen, she no longer considers herself a member of the Barretto family since matriarch Mommy Inday disowned her after her most recent tiff with Claudine. Gretchen added that the only people she considered family were her longtime partner, Tonyboy Cojuangco, and their daughter, Dominique.

Randy in bro’s defense

In an interview on the Sunday gabfest “The Buzz,” singer-actor Randy Santiago came to his brother Raymart’s defense. Randy said Claudine’s request for a TPO was no longer applicable, since Raymart had not been living in the same house with her and their children for some time now. Randy, who was on the show to promote the comedy film he directed, inhibited himself from making any more comments after that.

Raymart denied earlier Claudine’s claim that he abused her, causing her “all kinds of stress” since 2005. The TPO would prevent the actor from getting within 300 meters of Claudine and their children, Sabina, 9, and Santino, 6.

According to the actor, people who know him well could prove what kind of a father he is. “These people could also prove that [Claudine] is capable of making up stories,” he said in Filipino via a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer the day after Claudine asked for a TPO. “Again, I strongly deny her accusations. The truth will come out eventually. I will answer all accusations in court at the proper time.”

‘Deceived’

Reacting to Raymart’s statement, Topacio said the actor “deceived” Claudine into marrying him in 2006. “We find [the] statement to be very funny, coming from a man whose very foundations for his enticements for Ms Barretto to enter into marriage with him are based on stories concocted by him and bolstered by layers upon layers of more untruths, as we shall prove in a separate case.”