Barretto sisters Gretchen, Marjorie and Claudine.

The Barretto sisters are quite something else.

While some well-off families, both the legit ones and the lateral, do have clashes at the funeral wakes of their matriarchs and patriarchs and other loved ones possibly due to inheritances and to assert their social standing, they don’t brandish the family clashes on social media. They don’t wash their dirty linen in public, as the saying goes.

The Barretto sisters Gretchen, Marjorie and Claudine have been taking turns on Instagram to insist on their own “truths” about their entanglements, including hair pulling at the wake of their father, Miguel Barretto. Their niece, Nicole, daughter of their brother JJ, got into the fray, too, by claiming that Gretchen stole her “boyfriend” who turned out to be gambling lord Atong Ang.

Gretchen wrote on her Instagram that Nicole lunged at her at the wake right on the night President Rodrigo Duterte showed up at the vigil, though Nicole didn’t get to touch her (Gretchen) because the friends the inactive actress were talking with were quick enough to stop her from getting close to her target. (Nicole later claimed that it was because Atong was “stolen” from her by Gretchen that she was sent to the US to study and eventually completed a “doctorate” — though without stating what her academic concentration was.)

That Gretchen supposedly has a sly romance going on with Atong even now was first hinted at by Marjorie by describing Gretchen’s “boyfriend” as an “evil person” but parenthetically emphasized that it was not billionaire businessman Tonyboy Cojuangco that she was referring to.

To clear her name, Gretchen unwittingly revealed that it was their youngest sister Claudine who once had Atong for a boyfriend, though Tonyboy’s live-in girlfriend (Gretchen) eventually described Atong as being “happily married” and Gretchen even posted pictures of Atong with his wife Iris and their children. (The man openly labeled “gambling lord” has denied any romantic attachment to any Barretto girl, and claimed to be a close friend and “business” associate of both Tonyboy and Gretchen. However, Atong admitted he knew all the feuding Barretto siblings as well as Nicole, her dad and her mom.)

Claudine stopped getting involved in the family clashes after she landed in hospital following a heated argument with Marjorie.

President Duterte smartly avoided getting embroiled in the fights though he did witness one night of those when he went to condole mainly with Gretchen whom he admits to be one of his loyal supporters.

Marjorie’s daughter, Julia Barretto, who once snidely referred to her aunts as “evil,” also stopped making comments during the weekend against her aunts but she must have been reminded by ABS-CBN to stay silent and sweet as she was already scheduled to be in a media conference with Tony Labrusca for the eight-part digital series I Want U. (That media huddle transpired Monday, 21 October, with Julia turning up fresh, lovely and looking innocent in an all-white outfit despite ongoing suspicions that she stole Gerald Anderson from Bea Alonzo.)

Miguel Barretto was laid to rest on Sunday (20 October). No bickerings that day. As this is being written (on Monday, 21 October), all remains quiet at the Barretto front. Or could it be just the calm before the storm? The three sisters once threatened to spill all their family secrets after their beloved father’s burial.