Beauty queen Michelle Dee (left) and actress Rhian Ramos were accused of illegally detaining and torturing a 40-year-old man. - MICHELLE DEE/INSTAGRAM
MANILA: Three Filipino actresses – two of whom were also former beauty queens – have been accused of assaulting and torturing a driver over purported sensitive photos he claimed accidentally landed in his possession.
A complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was filed against actresses Michelle Dee, Samantha Panlilio and Rhian Ramos by a man identified only as “Totoy”.
Totoy, who said he was Ramos’ driver, accused the three women and their bodyguards of beating him up for three days starting on Jan 17.
He said Dee and Ramos had accused him of stealing a hongbao packet with sensitive photos of them.
A statement issued by the two women’s lawyer, Maggie Garduque, denied Totoy’s allegations of illegal detention and assault.
“His allegations of mauling/physical injuries and illegal detention is not only physically impossible but also incredible,” she said.
Garduque disclosed on Jan 29 that Dee was in Iloilo on Jan 17, and was not back in Makati till Jan 18.
Dee is the Miss Universe-Philippines 2023 titleholder, who went as far as being a semi-finalist at the Miss Universe pageant that same year.
Ramos appears in a top TV series in the Philippines.
Panlilio, meanwhile, is a beauty queen-TV personality who ran for a seat in Congress in 2025.
Totoy told reporters Dee’s bodyguards beat him up at a condominium Dee shares with Ramos at the 39th floor of a residential complex in Makati city, an hour’s drive south of the capital Manila on Jan 17.
He said Dee herself punched him in the gut, poked his eyes and rapped his head several times.
He said he overheard the bodyguards talking about killing him, so he jumped out of the window of the condominium when he had the chance.
He claimed that a rope broke his fall, and he was able to get inside a unit on the 25th floor that had a window open.
He then ran down to the lobby, where Reyes’ bodyguards caught up with him and brought him back to Dee’s and Reyes’ unit.
He said Panlilio arrived later and joined in the beatings that he said continued for two more days.
Dee then brought Totoy to a police station and accused him of theft. Totoy claimed two policemen roughed him up while he was at the station.
While being interrogated there, he admitted that he did manage to get a hold of a hongbao packet with nine sensitive photos of Dee and Ramos, but that it was his wife who somehow found the packet, and that he was merely trying to return it to Ramos.
One photograph, though, was missing. This apparently set Dee and Ramos off.
Totoy was released from the police station three days later after a city prosecutor dismissed Dee’s complaint against him.
Totoy then sought the help of the non-government group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), which advised him to seek the NBI’s help.
VACC head Boy Evangelista said his group took an interest in the case because it involves illegal detention and assault. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
