The camp of former ABS-CBN News executive Cheryl Favila and ABS-CBN News segment producer Maricar Asprec and the Kapamilya broadcast journalist Cecilia “Ces” Drilon denied accusations made against them by their colleague, Gretchen Fullido.
Gretchen filed a sexual harassment complaint against Cheryl and Maricar before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, October 5, accusing the two of sending her text messages with “sexual innuendos,” amounting to “request for sexual favors.” The reporter said that this has been going on for almost three years.
[READ: Gretchen Fullido lodges sexual harassment, libel cases vs. ABS-CBN execs]
Lawyer Evalyn Ursua, legal counsel of Cheryl and Maricar, on Saturday, October 6, found it ‘unfortunate’ that Gretchen decided to pursue her complaint even after it was previously dismissed as ‘baseless’ by the ABS-CBN.
The network, according to her, dismissed the case after Cheryl and Maricar had proven that the said text messages were “distorted and maliciously taken out of their conversation threads.”
“The story behind Fullido’s baseless charge of sexual harassment is a complicated one, involving personal, professional, and political matters,” the lawyer said.
Evalyn also called Gretchen’s complaint as a “classic example of discrimination” against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community.
“The prevailing homophobia in society result in a stereotyped belief that women of same-sex sexual orientation indiscriminately go after any woman or are prone to sexually harassed other women,” she said.
She added, “We invite the LGBTQ community to examine this case closely and to stand by Favila and Asprec, two decent and upright women whose integrity is widely known among their peers and colleagues.”
Despite the dismissal of the sexual harassment complaint against Cheryl, she was still dismissed from work after ABS-CBN found her liable for gross misconduct in July.
Aside from the two, Gretchen also lodged a libel complaint against her three other colleagues, ABS-CBN News executives, Ces and Venancio Borromeo, and news reporter Marie Lozano for damaging her reputation by saying that she filed sexual harassment cases against Cheryl and Maricar to “leverage her employment status” at the company.
The entertainment reporter accused Ces of victim shaming when the latter said Gretchen “deserved to be harassed” when she was “willing to wear a bikini with an inflatable pool with bubbles to shove up the ratings of TV Patrol.”
TV Patrol is an evening news program where Gretchen anchors the Star Patrol segment.
Ces, in her statement also on Saturday, said it is ‘unthinkable’ for her to do what Gretchen alleges as she was also “a victim of sexual harassment before.”
“Throughout my life, I have been an advocate of women’s rights and women’s empowerment,” she said.
“I encourage and support women to exercise their right to come out with truthful stories of harassment and abuse and I would never belittle any such move,” she continued.
Ces also claimed that some parts of her testimony in an internal and confidential investigation into Gretchen’s allegations were ‘distorted.’
The Kapamilya journalist then hinted that she will take legal actions against the “false allegations and attack on my reputation.”
“Again, I would never belittle any woman coming out to speak of any abuse committed against her. It is against everything I stand for as a woman,” she stressed.
ABS-CBN, for its part, said it does not condone sexual harassment in the workplace or by its employees, adding that it respects Gretchen’s right to file her complaints to court.