“I was humiliated, offended and threatened by Andrew Wolff’s friend.” – Melissa Mendez
by Vance Madrid
Actress Melissa Mendez airs her side of the incident involving her and athlete-actor Andrew Wolff. She admitted that she have been offloaded from a Cebu Pacific plane en route to Pagadian City. She also said that she slapped a fellow passenger, a friend of Wolff, for allegedly “disrespecting” her.
“I’ve been humiliated, offended and threatened. I would seek the help of women’s rights group Gabriella on what to do with them. Andrew Wolff’s friend, taunted me and bullied me. He said many offensive and degrading things to me. That’s why I slapped him.”
In an Instagram post, Wolff said that an actress who had the initials of M.M.,” refused to leave the reserved seats supposedly for his friend. He added that the actress only agreed to return to her designated seat after being asked by the flight attendants, captain and ground security.”
Wolff even said that Mendez “smelled like a beer brewery and that she kept cursing his friend, whom later on was identified as Rey Pamintuan.
The 50-year-old actress wanted to clarify things: First of all, I was not drunk, that’s what his group was trying to imply. But how can that be when I don’t even drink alcohol in the first place? I’ve been on a juice diet for several months now. It was possible that what they have smelled was the juice mixture of beetroot, papaya, pineapple and watermelon that I drank before I left the house that morning,” explained Mendez.
What had really happened?
Everything had been blown out into proportion because of these men. It was true that I sat on 1A seat, which wasn’t reserved for me. I wanted to take pictures of the clouds. I asked if I could stay there until I’m able to take good photos of the clouds,” she recalled.
‘When I asked Andrew’s friend, he said right away, “Hindi puwede. Binayaran ko yan! I then answered that it won’t take long, makikisuyo lan. It was then that he told me, ‘Pag di ka pa umalis diyan hahampasin na kita ng bag na dala ko sa mukha mo,” relates Mendez.
“I was offended because he was so disrespectful. I’m a woman in my 50’s, why would he talk to me that way? Nagpanting ang tenga ko so I said ‘ang kapal naman ng mukha mo. Wala naman akong masamang ginagawa sa iyo.’
Mendez and Pamintuan then exchanged more “hurtful words” against each other until the pilot came to pacify them. “Andrew’s friend kept talking when we were already seated on our designated seats. I told Andrew to me his friend to stop. But Andrew said, ‘I don’t know you!’ This hurt me more because he used to be a friend of my daughter Denisse.”
“So I stood up once again to approach Pamintuan. “I had wanted to make peace with him, because I’ve sensed he’s a powerful man and I want to be okay with him before we land. So I sought permission of a stewardess before I approached him.”
“I was calm when I went up to him. He covered his nose with a magazine and then said, ‘Get away from me. You’ve got bad breath! Will you please brush your teeth? You’re so gross!’ It was then when I slapped him. What he told me was really humiliating.”
She was supposed to host a show in Pagadian City. “My producers said they will no longer get my services because of the negative stuff Andrew said about me on his Instagram account. I’m assuming that it’s not safe for me to go there anymore because Pamintuan is very influential there,” she said. “I was only going there to work. Just because he’s from an affluent family, I’d be treated this way?”
Mendez said she had no plans on saying sorry for slapping Wolff’s friend. “If there’s someone who should apologize, it should be Andrew’s friend–Pamintuan, and Andrew himself because he should have mediated but he did nothing.”
