QC court to ‘T3’: Keep off Raymart, Claudine

Give this round to the celebrity couple.

A Quezon City court has barred brothers Erwin, Ben, and Raffy Tulfo from getting within 500 meters of show biz couple Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto, more than two weeks after the siblings issued threats on national TV over the May 6 airport brawl between their eldest brother Ramon and the couple.

In an order issued Thursday, Judge Bayani Vargas of Quezon City Regional Trial Court-Branch 219 issued a temporary protection order in favor of the Santiagos.

The order directed the Philippine National Police to designate a security team for the couple. Its restrictions also apply to the brothers’ aides or bodyguards.

The four-page order also directed the Tulfo brothers, hosts of the “T3” program on TV5, to submit within 72 hours their answer to the petition for a writ of amparo that was filed by the Santiagos.

“A general denial of the allegations in the petition shall not be allowed,” Vargas said.

The court said it was convinced that the brothers’ remarks on national TV, as alleged in the petition, “engender(ed) a well-founded belief that the right to life, liberty and security of the petitioners was allegedly violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act of the respondents.”

The Santiagos earlier sought court protection after the couple and their companions figured in a brawl with Inquirer columnist Ramon Tulfo at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on May 6.

The fight started when Ramon Tulfo began taking photos of Barretto as she complained to an airline staff member about the delayed arrival of her check-in baggage.

The younger Tulfo brothers later issued an apology and were suspended by their network.