ABS-CBN news executive Ces Drilon is thinking of filing a countersuit against showbiz news anchor Gretchen Fullido after the latter filed several lawsuits against her former and current colleagues at the said media company last October 5 at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.
Drilon, together with fellow news executive Venancio Borromeo and reporter Marie Lozano, are facing libel charges after Fullido said that they “besmirched her reputation when they stated that she filed a similar sexual harassment complaint against Cheryl Favila and Maricar Asprec with ABS-CBN management to leverage her employment status with ABS-CBN”.
Fullido’s lawyer Marvin Aceron said that in an online statement that his client filed a sexual harassment case against Favila and Asprec when she “alleged that Favila and Asprec sent her text messages that were loaded with sexual innuendos, which amounted to requests for sexual favors.”
Drilon, who is a known broadcaster in the Philippines, was accused of “victim shaming” by several netizens. But Drilon countered and said that being a former victim of sexual harassment herself, she will never commit such allegations and urged women to exercise their right to come out with truthful stories of harassment and abuse.
My statement on the libel case filed by Gretchen Fullido. pic.twitter.com/DTHCDIYoCm
— Ces Oreña-Drilon (@cesdrilon) October 6, 2018
In her Complaint Affidavit, Fullido said that Drilon allegedly told her that she “deserved to be harassed” since she was “willing to wear a bikini with an inflatable pool with bubbles to shove up the ratings of TV Patrol, a leading daily news program.”
Fullido also added that she had a difficult time working with Favila and Asprec for three years whenever she would refuse their sexual advances.
As a response, Favila and Asprec’s legal counsel, Atty. Evalyn Ursua, said that Fullido’s allegations are “baseless” and that the text messages that she was to were “distorted and maliciously taken out of their conversation threads”.
I have always been an advocate of women’s rights and empowerment in my personal and professional life.
“My decades of work as a feminist lawyer speak of my consistent advocacy against those who abuse women and girl children.
“But while I am a women’s rights advocate, I have never supported nor will I ever support any abuse of the right to file a sexual harassment complaint based on fabricated stories and out of pure malice.
“It is the duty of every women’s rights advocate to ensure that a woman complainant exercises her rights to file a sexual harassment complaint responsibly.
“We owe this to the thousands of advocates and genuine victims who fought long and hard to have this form of abuse recognize by society and the State, and to have remedies institutionalized in law.
“While it pains me to go against another woman in a sexual harassment case, I welcome the opportunity to rise to the defense of two women who are wrongly accused,” Atty. Urusa said.
Since the issue erupted, ABS-CBN management has released a statement saying that will take prompt action regarding the case.
The statement reads:
“ABS-CBN respects the right of news anchor and reporter Gretchen Marie Fullido to bring her sexual harassment complaint to the courts.
“Now that she has filed charges with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, we expect all parties to allow the legal process to take its course.
“ABS-CBN takes sexual harassment seriously and does not condone such acts in the workplace or by its employees.
“When Ms. Fullido filed an administrative case against a supervising producer and a segment producer for alleged sexual harassment in November 2017, the company took prompt action on the administrative complaint and decided based on the evidence presented.”
For her part, Fullido simply asked the public to pray for her as she goes through her legal battle.
“All I can say is these are public records now. The public can do their research and verify. Please just pray for me in these difficult times,” PEP.ph quoted Fullido as saying.
